  {"id":231294,"date":"2026-03-25T13:49:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=231294"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:38:22","slug":"tae-ung-baik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/25\/tae-ung-baik\/","title":{"rendered":"Law professor to represent South Korea in new ambassadorial role"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_231341\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-231341\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/manoa-law-baik-composite-2.jpg\" alt=\"headshot with blurred background\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-231341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/manoa-law-baik-composite-2.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/manoa-law-baik-composite-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/manoa-law-baik-composite-2-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-231341\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tae-Ung Baik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea appointed University of <span lang=\"haw\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> at <span lang=\"haw\">M&#257;noa<\/span> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/law.hawaii.edu\/people\/tae-ung-baik\/\">Tae-Ung Baik<\/a> as the Ambassador for South Korea to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (<abbr title=\"Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development\">OECD<\/abbr>), recognizing his decades-long leadership in human rights scholarship, international law and public service.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I am delighted to bring the insights I have developed during my tenure as a professor at the <a href=\"https:\/\/law.hawaii.edu\/\">William S. Richardson School of Law<\/a>, to the <abbr>OECD<\/abbr>, in my commitment to serving the global community,&rdquo; Baik said.<\/p>\n<h2>International human rights, comparative law<\/h2>\n<p>Baik, a globally respected scholar of international human rights and comparative law, has been a member of the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> law school since 2011. His appointment marks a significant milestone for the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> law school and underscores the global impact of its faculty.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Professor Baik\u2019s appointment as an ambassador is a tremendous honor for him and for our entire community,&rdquo; <abbr>UH<\/abbr> law school\u2019s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Troy J.H. Andrade said. &ldquo;Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to justice, human rights, and democratic governance. His expertise and moral leadership will serve the people of Korea and the international community well.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Before joining <abbr>UH<\/abbr>, Baik taught at the University of British Columbia and served as director of the Korean Legal Studies Program. At the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> law school, he has taught courses in international human rights law, international criminal law, comparative law and Korean law, while mentoring students interested in global justice and public service. He also served as the director of <abbr>UH<\/abbr>\u2019s Center for Korean Studies.<\/p>\n<p>Baik is recognized for his work on transitional justice, human rights systems in Asia and international accountability mechanisms. From 2015 to 2022, he served as an independent expert with the <abbr title=\"United Nations\">United Nations<\/abbr> Human Rights Council Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, where he held leadership roles as vice-chair and later chair-rapporteur. In that capacity, he worked with governments, civil society organizations, and families of victims to investigate and address cases of enforced disappearance worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Law Professor Tae-Ung Baik was appointed as the Ambassador for South Korea to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[598,154,9,68],"class_list":["post-231294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-law","tag-uh-manoa","tag-william-s-richardson-school-of-law","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231294"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231342,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231294\/revisions\/231342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}