Jerome A. Cohen, who pioneered the study of China’s opaque legal system, was one of the first foreign lawyers to practice in China and became a voice against human rights abuses there, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 95.

孔杰荣(Jerome A. Cohen)是研究不透明的中国法律体系的先驱人物，他是首批在中国执业的外国律师之一，并就中国的人权问题公开发声。他于上周一在曼哈顿家中去世，享年95岁。

His death was confirmed by his sons Ethan and Peter.

他的儿子伊森和彼得证实了他的死讯。

Mr. Cohen “created the field of the study of Chinese law in the United States,” Stephen Orlins, the president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and a former student and colleague of his, said in an interview. “It’s rare to find a field where in the beginning it was so shaped by one person.”

美中关系全国委员会会长、孔杰荣昔日的学生兼同事欧伦斯(Stephen Orlins)在接受采访时表示，孔杰荣“在美国开创了中国法律研究领域。很少有一个学科在起步阶段如此深刻地受到一位学者的塑造”。

Mr. Cohen originally appeared destined for a conventional, if illustrious, career as a law professor. After graduating from Yale Law School, he clerked for two Supreme Court justices and took a job at the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught mainstream topics.

孔杰荣最初似乎注定将拥有一个按部就班却辉煌的法律教授生涯。从耶鲁大学法学院毕业后，他先后担任两位最高法院大法官的书记员，随后在加州大学伯克利分校法学院任教，讲授法学中的主流议题。

But an opportunity arose for him to study the Chinese language and Chinese law, and he signed on, to the bafflement of some colleagues, at a time when China was convulsed by political revolution and Americans were generally banned from visiting the country.

但他遇到了一个学习中文和中国法律的机会，尽管当时中国正处于政治革命的动荡之中且基本禁止美国人访华，他仍毅然投身这一领域，这让一些同事感到不解。

After learning the language, Mr. Cohen interviewed people from mainland China who had fled to Hong Kong, to gain insights into how courts and prosecutors worked under Mao Zedong. He later established a program in East Asian law at Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the faculty from 1964 to 1979.

学习了中文之后，孔杰荣通过采访逃到香港的大陆人，深入了解毛泽东时代中国法院和检察机关的运作方式。他后来在哈佛大学法学院创立了东亚法律研究项目，1964年至1979年间在该院任教。

After Mao died and China began to court Western investment, Mr. Cohen took another career leap, to law firms. He advised foreign companies and educated Chinese officials who were hungry for knowledge about commercial law.

毛泽东去世后，中国开始寻求西方投资，孔杰荣的职业生涯再次转向，进入律师事务所工作。他为外国公司提供咨询服务，并为渴望了解商法的中国官员传授相关知识。

In 1990, Mr. Cohen began teaching at New York University, where he hosted lawyers, judges and human rights advocates from China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere. Until his death, he remained vocal about China’s increasingly repressive turn under President Xi Jinping.

1990年，孔杰荣开始在纽约大学执教，期间接待了来自中国、台湾、日本、韩国及其他国家和地区的律师、法官和人权倡导者。直至去世前，他一直没有停止对习近平上台后中国日益严厉的政治压制的公开批评。

News of Mr. Cohen’s death prompted an outpouring of tributes from politicians, lawyers, academics and activists across Asia, many of whom owed a part of their careers — and even their freedom — to him. One tribute came from Xu Zhangrun, a law professor in China, who had Mr. Cohen’s loud support when he was forced out of his job and placed under heavy police surveillance after criticizing Mr. Xi.

孔杰荣逝世的消息传出后，亚洲多国的政界人士、律师、学者及活动人士纷纷发表悼文，其中许多人的职业生涯——甚至人身自由——都曾受惠于他。中国法学教授许章润便是其中之一，当年他因为批评习近平而被迫离职并遭受警方严密监视时，孔杰荣曾公开声援。

“His passing truly marks the end of an era,” Mr. Xu wrote in a eulogy published in the online journal China Heritage. “For Jerome Cohen, the idea of legal rights was always grounded in a respect for basic human rights.”

他的“久病仙逝，标志着一个时代的结束，”许章润在网络期刊《China Heritage》上发表的悼文中写道。“孔公希望播种法意以达公义，借助法权以捍卫人权。”

Jerome Alan Cohen was born on July 1, 1930, in Elizabeth, N.J., and raised in nearby Linden, the younger of two sons of Philip Cohen, a lawyer, and Beatrice (Kaufman) Cohen, a schoolteacher.

孔杰荣于1930年7月1日出生在新泽西州伊丽莎白市，在邻近的林登长大，是律师菲利普·科恩和教师比阿特丽斯·科恩（娘家姓考夫曼）夫妇的次子。

He excelled in high school and attended Yale University, where he majored in international relations before entering the law school there.

高中时期他成绩优异，后考入耶鲁大学，主修国际关系，之后又进入该校法学院深造。

孔杰荣夫妇与三个儿子在日本京都，从左至右分别为彼得、伊森和塞斯，摄于1972年。

While in college, he met Joan Lebold. They married in 1954. She survives him, as do his three sons, Ethan, Peter and Seth; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

在大学期间，他遇见了琼·勒博尔德，两人于1954年结婚。孔杰荣的遗属包括妻子琼、三个儿子伊森、彼得和塞斯，以及七个孙辈和六个曾孙辈。

In a memoir, “Eastward, Westward,” published this year, Mr. Cohen recalled the culture of antisemitism that kept him and other bright Jewish law students from winning summer internships at prestigious law firms.

在今年出版的回忆录《东行，西行》(Eastward, Westward)中，孔杰荣回忆起当年笼罩在法律界的反犹文化——这种歧视使他和其他优秀的犹太裔法学院学生无法获得顶尖律所的暑期实习机会。

But he found notable success anyway. After he graduated, he and his wife moved to Washington, where he clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren and then for Justice Felix Frankfurter. He worked for the firm Covington & Burling and as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia before moving to Berkeley, where he began teaching in 1959, starting with classes on criminal law.

但他依然取得了卓越成就：毕业后与妻子移居华盛顿，先后担任首席大法官厄尔·沃伦与大法官费利克斯·弗兰克福特的书记员。他曾在科文顿·柏灵律师事务所执业，还曾在哥伦比亚特区联邦检察官办公室任检察官，随后到加州大学伯克利分校，于1959年开始执教，最初讲授刑法课程。

The next year, the law school asked Mr. Cohen if he could find a suitable candidate for a Rockefeller Foundation grant to study Chinese language and law. China was then largely closed off to Americans, and little was known about how its legal system operated. When Mr. Cohen could not find any takers, he began wondering if he should put himself forward.

次年，法学院请孔杰荣为洛克菲勒基金会物色合适人选，去研修中国语言与法律。当时中国对美国几乎完全封闭，其司法体系的运作模式鲜为人知。孔杰荣未能找到人选，于是开始考虑自己是否应该亲自上阵。

Some colleagues were skeptical. In his memoir, Mr. Cohen recalled the law school’s dean at the time, William L. Prosser, telling him, “Don’t throw away your career on China.”

一些同事对此持怀疑态度。孔杰荣在回忆录中提到，当时的法学院院长威廉·普罗瑟曾对他说：“不要把你的职业生涯浪费在中国上。”

But Mr. Cohen took the plunge. His wife, who had an interest in Asian art, began to study Chinese history and culture; she later worked as an art historian, curator, writer and photographer.

但孔杰荣仍毅然投身其中。对亚洲艺术怀有兴趣的妻子开始研习中国历史与文化，后来更成为艺术史学家、策展人、作家和摄影师。

1988年，孔杰荣与国际法学家委员会的吉尔·斯普鲁斯走出新加坡一家法院。他们此前旁听了一宗政治案件的审理。

After learning Chinese, Mr. Cohen moved with his family to Hong Kong in 1963. Documents dealing with China’s legal system were scarce, and he began to interview refugees from the mainland, including former police officers, to glean insights into how the law really worked. In 1968, he published a trailblazing study, “The Criminal Process in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-63.” In all, he edited, wrote or co-wrote more than a dozen books, many of them guides to law in China.

学习中文后，孔杰荣于1963年携家人移居香港。当时关于中国法律体系的文献极为匮乏，他着手采访来自大陆的难民，包括曾经的警察，以深入探究法律的实际运作。1968年，他出版了开创性研究著作《中华人民共和国刑事诉讼程序(1949-1963)》(The Criminal Process in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-63）。他累计主编、撰写或合著了十余部著作，其中多部是关于中国法律的指南读物。

“He showed the great value of paying attention to what’s going on in the ground, what’s really happening down there, as opposed to just relying on written materials,” Donald C. Clarke, an emeritus professor at the George Washington University Law School, said in an interview.

“他展现了关注现实层面以了解真实情况的重要价值，而非仅仅依赖书面材料，”乔治·华盛顿大学法学院荣休教授郭丹青(Donald C. Clarke)在采访中说。

Mr. Cohen moved on to Harvard and became involved in pressing for the United States to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing. He also yearned to visit the Chinese mainland; his unsuccessful attempts included written pleas and a proposal to purchase a panda for an American zoo.

孔杰荣后来转赴哈佛大学，并积极参与推动美国与北京建立外交关系。他亦渴望亲身前往中国大陆，曾多次尝试未果——包括提出书面请求，以及为一座美国动物园购买一只大熊猫的提议。

His chance finally came in 1972, when he joined a small delegation of scholars who visited Beijing and other cities. Mr. Cohen recalled struggling to chat with wary residents over bowls of soy milk at a breakfast eatery. The highlight of the trip was a dinner with China’s premier, Zhou Enlai.

1972年，机会终于降临，他加入一个规模不大的学者代表团，访问了北京等城市。他忆及在一家早餐店与警惕的当地民众喝着豆浆艰难攀谈的情景。此行最精彩的部分则是与周恩来总理共进晚宴。

1972年，作为一个学者代表团的成员访华期间，孔杰荣在北京见到了中华人民共和国总理周恩来。

“I understand that you have done many books on our legal system,” Mr. Cohen recalled Mr. Zhou telling him, with a tone that “gently implied that perhaps I had made more of China’s legal system than China had.”

“我知道你写了很多关于我们法律体系的著作，”孔杰荣回忆周恩来当时对他说道，语气中“隐约暗示，我对中国法律体系的描述恐怕与现实不符”。

After Mao died and China’s leaders began to welcome more foreign visitors and investment, Mr. Cohen’s knowledge of Chinese law was in demand from international companies. He began to give lectures to Chinese officials who were eager to learn how to draft contracts, commercial laws and tax rules.

毛泽东去世后，中国领导人开始欢迎更多国外来客和投资，孔杰荣在中国法律领域的学识因此备受跨国公司青睐。他还开始为渴望学习如何起草合同、商法和税法规章的中国官员开设讲座。

Mr. Cohen decided to leave his position at Harvard and practice law full time. In 1981 he joined the firm Paul Weiss, and he encouraged young lawyers to focus their careers on China. Many of them have recalled his bustling enthusiasm, his generosity in helping students and young lawyers, and the bow tie he often wore.

孔杰荣决定离开哈佛教职，全职从事法律实践工作。1981年他加入宝维斯律师事务所，并鼓励年轻律师将中国作为事业重心。许多人至今仍记得他风风火火的热情、提携后辈的慷慨胸怀，以及他常佩戴的领结。

In these years he and his wife spent much of their time in China, where he was involved in drafting contracts, advising companies and settling commercial disputes.

在宝维斯工作期间，他和妻子大部分时间都在中国度过，参与合同起草、企业咨询，以及商业纠纷的调解。

“He had a thirst to learn,” said Yvonne Y.F. Chan, whom Mr. Cohen recruited to Paul Weiss. “We’d be in these grueling negotiations and he’d ask these questions that might even go off on a tangent, because he was so curious to understand where the other side was coming from.”

“他始终怀抱着求知的渴望，”由孔杰荣招进宝维斯律师事务所的伊冯·陈回忆道，“即使在艰苦的谈判中，他也会提出些看似偏离主题的追问，只因他迫切想要理解对方的立场。”

20世纪70年代末的孔杰荣。他于2000年从律所退休，但一直在纽约大学任教至2020年。他还持续访问中国，并偶尔接手案件。

Mr. Cohen retired from Paul Weiss in 2000, but until 2020 he remained a professor at N.Y.U., where he founded the U.S.-Asia Law Institute. He continued to visit China and occasionally took on cases, including that of Zhao Yan, a researcher for The New York Times who was imprisoned on charges of fraud in 2006 after prosecutors dropped their initial accusation that he had stolen state secrets.

孔杰荣于2000年从宝维斯律师事务所退休，但一直担任纽约大学教授至2020年，他在该校创办了美亚法律研究中心。他持续造访中国，并偶尔接手案件，包括曾为《纽约时报》研究员赵岩辩护——该案在检方撤回“泄漏国家机密”的最初指控后，在2006年以欺诈罪判决赵岩入狱。

Mr. Cohen also took a deep interest in the plight of two Chinese legal and human rights activists, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, who were given long prison terms in 2023 on charges of subversion of state power; and of Chen Guangcheng, a blind legal activist who fled detention in his home village and took refuge in the American Embassy in Beijing before flying to the United States in 2012.

孔杰荣亦深切关注中国维权律师和人权活动人士许志永和丁家喜的困境。这两人于2023年因“颠覆国家政权罪”被判处长期徒刑。他同样关心陈光诚的遭遇，这位盲人维权律师曾在家乡遭到软禁，后逃入北京的美国大使馆，并于2012年飞往美国。

“He organized a seminar to make sure that people paid attention to the case,” Mr. Ding’s wife, Sophie Luo, said in an interview. “He put me in touch with people and organized resources. He didn’t want them to be forgotten.”

“他曾组织过一次研讨会，以确保人们关注这个案件，”丁家喜的妻子罗胜春在采访中说，“他帮我联系到很多人并整合资源，他不希望他们被人遗忘。”

Mr. Cohen often lamented China’s increasingly repressive policies under Mr. Xi. But he rejected despair.

孔杰荣时常感叹习近平上台后中国日益严厉的政策，但他拒绝陷入绝望。

“I’m not totally pessimistic, as some people are,” he said in an interview published last year in the digital newsmagazine The Wire China. “China’s development has been pendulum-like. At the moment, we’re in a repressive period. That won’t last. It can’t last.”

“我不像一些人那样完全陷入悲观，”他在去年接受数字新闻杂志《The Wire China》采访时说。“中国的发展就像钟摆一样。眼下我们正处于一个高压时期。但这种情况不会持久，也不可能持久。”