The series examines legal system development and rule of law in Asia, using Western legal systems as comparison points. Given the great diversity among legal systems, the purpose is to understand how rule of law is conceived and implemented, and the role of law and the legal system with respect to economic growth, political reform and democratization, the protection of human rights, geopolitical stability and the engagement of Asian countries with other countries in the international arena. The project also addresses the Euro-American centricism of comparative law by replacing outdated stereotypes with empirically grounded, in-depth and up-to-date analyses of Asian legal systems across a wide range of issues and areas of law.
By Lilis Mulyani
August 26, 2022
This book explores the ambiguous legal status of traditional–adat–communities in Indonesia and their informal, traditional rights to communal–ulayat–land. It discusses the lack of recognition of adat communities and their legal rights in the Indonesian constitution, surveys legal consideration of ...
Edited
By Tim Lindsey, Helen Pausacker
August 01, 2022
Indonesia’s criminal law system faces major challenges. Despite the country’s transition to democracy, both the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code are badly out of date, the former only superficially changed since colonial times and the latter remaining as it was under Soeharto’s ...
Edited
By Andrew Harding, Dian A. H. Shah
December 12, 2019
This book provides a systematic and interdisciplinary examination of law and legal institutions in Malaysia. It examines legal issues from historical, social, and political perspectives, and discusses the role of law in relation to Malaysian multiculturalism, religion, politics, and society. It ...
Edited
By Jaclyn Neo, Swati Jhaveri
December 09, 2019
Once a ceremonial position modelled after the constitutional monarchy in the United Kingdom, the office of the President of Singapore was transformed from an appointed to an elected one in 1991. As the head of state, but not the head of government, the elected President was to have additional ...
By Neil Chisholm
November 11, 2019
This book examines Taiwan’s judicial reform process, which began three years after the 1996 transition to democracy, in 1999, when Taiwanese legal and political leaders began discussing how to reform Taiwan’s judicial system to meet the needs of the new social and political conditions. Covering ...
By Weibing Xiao
January 22, 2018
Freedom of Information (FOI) in China is often perceived as a recent and intriguing phenomenon. This book presents a more complex and detailed understanding of the evolution of FOI in China, using information flow analysis to explore the gradual development of government receptivity to FOI in an ...
Edited
By Jaclyn L Neo
January 12, 2018
At the heart of constitutional interpretation is the struggle between, on the one hand, fidelity to founding meanings, and, on the other hand, creative interpretation to suit the context and needs of an evolving society. This book considers the recent growth of constitutional cases in ...
Edited
By Tim Lindsey, Helen Pausacker
January 12, 2018
Despite its overwhelmingly Muslim majority, Indonesia has always been seen as exceptional for its diversity and pluralism. In recent years, however, there has been a rise in "majoritarianism", with resurgent Islamist groups pushing hard to impose conservative values on public life – in many cases ...
Edited
By Marco Bünte, Björn Dressel
December 21, 2017
In recent years the constitutional landscape of Southeast Asia has changed tremendously. Against a worldwide background of liberalization, globalization, and democratization, states in the region have begun to alter their constitutions, reinforcing human rights provisions, and putting in place ...
By Dimitri Vanoverbeke
October 12, 2017
Trial by jury is not a fundamental part of the Japanese legal system, but there has been a recent important move towards this with the introduction in 2009 of the lay assessor system whereby lay people sit with judges in criminal trials. This book considers the debates in Japan which surround this ...
By Bui Ngoc Son
May 24, 2017
Western liberal constitutionalism has expanded recently, with, in East Asia, the constitutional systems of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan based on Western principles, and with even the socialist polities of China and Vietnam having some regard to such principles. Despite the alleged universal ...
Edited
By John Gillespie, Albert Chen
January 21, 2016
Although the adoption of market reforms has been a key factor leading to China’s recent economic growth, China continues to be governed by a communist party and has a socialist-influenced legal system. Vietnam, starting later, also with a socialist-influenced legal system, has followed a similar ...
