Jerome A. Cohen, who pioneered the study of China’s legal system, was one of the first foreign lawyers to practice in China, and who became a voice against human rights abuses there, died on Sept. 22 at his home in Manhattan. He was 95.

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