Yale Law School has announced a five-year, $10 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to provide general support for its China Law Center.

The grant, among the largest foundation grants ever made to a Yale Law School program, will support the center's cooperative projects between U.S. and Chinese experts on key issues of Chinese law and policy reform. Established at the law school in 1999, the center partners with a range of Chinese institutions, including law schools, courts, administrative agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. According to Hewlett president Paul Brest, helping China improve its legal system furthers an array of goals, from supporting civil rights and civil liberties in China to increasing its effectiveness as a bulwark of the global economy.

"This level of support is unprecedented in the field of Chinese legal studies and legal reform and affirms the center's key role in the life of an increasingly global Yale Law School," said law school dean Harold Hongju Koh. "This grant guarantees that Yale Law School will continue as the leading center of thinking and understanding regarding a country of surpassing importance, which enjoys deep historical ties with our university."