The study of Asia and its plural legal systems is of increasing significance, both within and outside Asia. Lawyers, whether in Australia, America or Europe, or working within an Asian jurisdiction, require a sound knowledge of how the law operates across this fast-growing and diverse region. Law and Legal Institutions of Asia is the first book to offer a comprehensive assessment of eleven key jurisdictions in Asia - China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and the Philippines. Written by academics and practitioners with particular expertise in their state or territory, each chapter uses a breakthrough approach, facilitating cross-jurisdictional comparisons and giving essential insights into how law functions in different ways across the region and in each of the individual jurisdictions.

A challenging and provocative book that contests the liberal assumption that the rule of law will go hand in hand with a transition to market-based economies and even democracy in East Asia. Using case studies from Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam, the authors argue that the rule of law is in fact more likely to provide political elites with the means closely to control civil society. It is essential, therefore, to locate conceptions of judicial independence and the rule of law more generally within the ideological vocabulary of the state.

"This book suggests that, far from being irrelevant, law made an important contribution to the "East Asian miracle." The findings in the book show that, with the introduction of market-based economic policies, law and legal institutions tended to converge with economic development among the six economies and with the institutions of the West, although the extent of convergence differs from country to country and for different areas of the law."--BOOK JACKET.

Now in its second edition, this textbook presents a critical rethinking of the study of comparative law and legal theory in a globalising world, and proposes an alternative model. It highlights the inadequacies of current Western theoretical approaches in comparative law, international law, legal theory and jurisprudence, especially for studying Asian and African laws, arguing that they are too parochial and eurocentric to meet global challenges. Menski argues for combining modern natural law theories with positivist and socio-legal traditions, building an interactive, triangular concept of legal pluralism. Advocated as the fourth major approach to legal theory, this model is applied in analysing the historical and conceptual development of Hindu law, Muslim law, African laws and Chinese law.

This book offers a comparative analysis of traditional Asian legal systems. It combines methods from legal history, legal anthropology, legal philosophy, and substantive law, pursuing a comprehensive approach that offers readers a broad perspective on the topic. The geographic regions covered include the Near East, Middle East, Central Asia, India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. For each region, the book first provides historical and political context. Next, it discusses major milestones in the region’s legal history and political institutions, as well as its forms of government. Readers are then presented with fundamental principles and terms needed to understand the legal arguments discussed. The book begins with the Ancient Near East and important topics such as Jewish law. The next part considers Islamic law, while also exploring modern issues. The third part focuses on Hindu and Buddhist law, while the fourth part covers China and Japan. The book’s closing section examines tribal societies, e.g. Mongols, Pashtuns and Malays. Topics covered include the interaction of legal systems within a legal circle, inter-systemic interactions, reasons for the failure and success of legal modernization, legal pluralism, and its effects on Asian societies. Family law, law of obligation, criminal law, and procedural law are also explored.

Offers an accessible overview of Hong Kong's legal system and guides first-year law students in legal research and methods.

A Publication of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium This collection of reports written by local experts from ten Asian nations (Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam) compares the laws and public policy that regulate and influence the nonprofit sectors in these countries. As international organizations play an increasingly central role in world development and change, their success becomes contingent upon understanding the complex legal disparities between nonprofit sectors of varying societies. Philanthropy and Law in Asia provides international audiences with timely insights into these legal incongruities as well as the regulations affecting the nonprofit sector in Asia. The essays in this comprehensive volume are the culmination of extensive legal research and analysis inspired by the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium's Comparative Nonprofit Law Project. Each essay shares a common analytic framework, helping both practitioners and scholars to understand the ways in which nonprofit legal systems are regulated and structured throughout Asia. With this knowledge, international legislators, government officers, policy makers, nonprofit leaders, and legal counselors will be able to develop better intergovernmental cooperation and legal synergism. Philanthropy and Law in Asia is the up-to-date resource for those who wish to strengthen and improve the nonprofit sector in this significant region of the world. The Asia Foundation is part of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium and one of the driving forces behind Philanthropy and Law in Asia. It is a private, nonprofit, non-governmental organization dedicated to building leadership, improving policies, and strengthening institutions to foster greater openness and shared prosperity in the Asia Pacific region. The Asia Foundation has provided substantial assistance for the development of legislative systems in 16 countries and has supported more than 800 public interest, non-governmental organizations in the region.

This book examines administrative law throughout Asia, exploring the profound changes in many legal regimes that have occurred. It shows how many states have shifted towards a more market-oriented regulatory state model, involving a greater role for judges and law-like processes, and explores the profound implications of this for policy-making.

This book explores the legal culture of the Parsis, or Zoroastrians, an ethnoreligious community unusually invested in the colonial legal system of British India and Burma. Rather than trying to maintain collective autonomy and integrity by avoiding interaction with the state, the Parsis sank deep into the colonial legal system itself. From the late eighteenth century until India's independence in 1947, they became heavy users of colonial law, acting as lawyers, judges, litigants, lobbyists, and legislators. They de-Anglicized the law that governed them and enshrined in law their own distinctive models of the family and community by two routes: frequent intra-group litigation often managed by Parsi legal professionals in the areas of marriage, inheritance, religious trusts, and libel, and the creation of legislation that would become Parsi personal law. Other South Asian communities also turned to law, but none seems to have done so earlier or in more pronounced ways than the Parsis.

Introduction Intellectual property rights foster innovation. But if, as it surely does, “intellectual property” means not just intellectual property rules—the law of patents, copyrights, trademarks, designs, trade secrets, and unfair competition—but also intellectual property institutions—the courts, police, regulatory agencies, and collecting soc- ties that administer these rules—what are the respective roles of intellectual property rules and institutions in fostering creativity? And, to what extent do forces outside intellectual property rules and institutions—economics, culture, politics, history—also contribute to innovation? Is it possible that these other factors so overwhelm the impact of intellectual property regimes that it is futile to expect adjustments in intellectual property rules and institutions to alter patterns of inno- tion and, ultimately, economic development? It was to address these questions in the most dynamic region of the world today, Asia, that we invited leading country experts to contribute studies that not only summarize the current condition of intellectual property regimes in countries ranging in economic size from Cambodia to Japan, and in population from Laos to China, but that also describe the historical sources of these laws and institutions; the realities of intellectual property enforcement in the marketplace; and the political, economic, educational, and scientific infrastructures that sustain and direct inve- ment in innovative activity. A.