How does a nation become a great power? A global order was emerging in the nineteenth century, one in which all nations were included. This book explores the multiple legal grounds of Meiji Japan's assertion of sovereign statehood within that order: natural law, treaty law, international administrative law, and the laws of war. Contrary to arguments that Japan was victimized by 'unequal' treaties, or that Japan was required to meet a 'standard of civilization' before it could participate in international society, Howland argues that the Westernizing Japanese state was a player from the start. In the midst of contradictions between law and imperialism, Japan expressed state will and legal acumen as an equal of the Western powers – international incidents in Japanese waters, disputes with foreign powers on Japanese territory, and the prosecution of interstate war. As a member of international administrative unions, Japan worked with fellow members to manage technical systems such as the telegraph and the post. As a member of organizations such as the International Law Association and as a leader at the Hague Peace Conferences, Japan helped to expand international law. By 1907, Japan was the first non-western state to join the ranks of the great powers.

This volume sheds light on Japan's territorial situation from a unique perspective by analyzing the historical evolution of the concept of “territory” and the various legal theories on resolving territorial disputes. Each of the chapters in this book presents multiple points of view that provide significant insight into the resolution of Japan’s territorial issues, such as those concerning the Northern Territories, Takeshima, and the Senkaku Islands. This book will be a valuable and useful resource to practitioners, researchers, and even members of the general public with an interest in territorial disputes. Contributors are: Masaharu Yanagihara, Tadashi Mori, Tetsuya Yamada, Yuichi Sasaki, Atsuko Kanehara, Tomofumi Kitamura, Hironobu Sakai, Tomoko Fukamachi, and Dai Tamada.

Japan, the geopolitical lynchpin in the East Asian region, has developed a unique maritime security policy and interpretation of the law of the sea. Japanese Maritime Security and the Law of the Sea examines Japan’s domestic laws and its approach to international law.

Japan was sometimes described as a country of "peace" during the Cold War period, in contrast to the continental border conflicts taking place at the time, such as the China-Soviet rivalry. However, as the maritime frontier was "rediscovered" and defined by the regional powers and legal refinements of the 1970s, the process of states seeking a secure maritime zone has accelerated and maritime rivalries have become as intense as inland rivalries. This book examines the territorial disputes souring relations between Japan and its three neighbours: Russia, South Korea and China. It combines an empirical study with theoretical advancements in comparative research to understand the Cold War and post-Cold War border issues related to Japan, particularly the Northern Territories/South Kurils dispute with Russia; Takeshima/Dokto with Korea; and Senkaku/Diaoyu with China and Taiwan. Based on the history of negotiations with the Soviet Union and Russia over the course of fifty years, the study offers a series of practical suggestions to enable these disputes to be separated from arguments over their history and resolved on the basis of the principle of mutual advantage for those affected by them. This book provides not only the key to resolving these three disputes affecting East Asia, but the framework in which to seek the resolution of other territorial issues worldwide. Explaining the history and possible outcomes of Japan’s territorial disputes with Russia, South Korea and China whilst providing concrete steps for resolving entrenched territorial disputes, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of International Relations, Japanese Politics and International Law.

In The Dokdo/Takeshima Dispute, Paul Huth, Sunwoong Kim, and Terence Roehrig have assembled top scholars from Japan, South Korea, and the United States to provide a balanced and comprehensive look from multiple perspectives of this long-running island dispute.

Written in a clear and jargon-free style, this dictionary is useful to anyone without a legal qualification who comes into contact with the law in the United Kingdom or any Commonwealth country where the legal system is founded on English law.

This monograph analyses the historical evolution of the laws of occupation as a special branch of international humanitarian law (IHL), focusing on the extent to which this body of law has been transformed by its interaction with the development of international human rights law. It argues that a large part of the laws of occupation has proved to be malleable while being able to accommodate changing demands of civilians and any other persons affected by occupation in modern context. Its examinations have drawn much on archival research into the drafting documents of the instruments of IHL, including the aborted Brussels Declaration 1874, the 1899/1907 Hague Regulations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocol I. After assessing the complementary relationship between international human rights law and the laws of occupation, the book examines how to provide a coherent explanation for an emerging framework on the rights of individual persons affected by occupation. It engages in a theoretical appraisal of the role of customary IHL and the Martens clause in building up such a normative framework.

The territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over four islands off the northeast coast of Hokkaidō has been an enduring obstacle to closer relations between the two powers and therefore an important determinant of geopolitics in North-East Asia. Having emerged at the end of World War II, this conflict has now existed for more than seven decades. And yet, despite the passage of so much time, within Japan there remains a resilience of belief that the islands will eventually be returned. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of Japan’s prospects of ever recovering these "Northern Territories". Offering an in-depth account of why the Japanese side believe they still have a chance of securing the return of the four islands, it also provides an objective and methodical evaluation of the prospects of these expectations being realised. The key finding is that Japanese policymakers and scholars have consistently overestimated the extent of Japan’s leverage with regard to Russia, and that there is, in fact, already no possibility whatsoever of sovereignty over the four islands being restored to Japan. This has major implications for Japanese decision makers who must balance their principled commitment not to compromise on territorial issues with more pragmatic considerations of energy security and how to contain the rise of Chinese regional power. Presenting a unique analysis and a strikingly different perspective on this territorial dispute, the findings of this book are of considerable importance for international relations within the Asia-Pacific region. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Japanese Politics, Russian Politics and International Relations.

This is the leading reference on Japanese private international law in English. The chapters systematically cover the whole of Japanese private international law, not just questions likely to arise in commercial matters, but also in family, succession, cross-border insolvency, intellectual property, competition (antitrust), and environmental disputes. The chapters do not merely cover the traditional conflict of law areas of jurisdiction, applicable law (choice of law), and enforcement. The chapters also look into conflict of law questions arising in arbitration and assess Japanese involvement in the global harmonisation of private international law. In addition to summarising relevant principles and scholarly views, the authors discuss case law whenever possible and identify deficiencies and anticipate difficulties in the existing law. The book thus presents the Japanese conflict of laws through a combination of common and civil law analytical techniques and perspectives, providing readers worldwide with a more profound and comprehensive understanding of the subject.

The State of Sovereignty examines how it came to pass that the nation-state became the prevailing form of governance in the world today. Spanning the 19th and 20th centuries and addressing colonization and decolonization around the globe, these essays argue that sovereignty is a set of historically contingent practices, and not something that accrues naturally to states. The contributors explore the different ways in which sovereign political forms have been defined and have defined themselves, placing recent debates about nations and national identity within a broader history of sovereignty, territory, and legality.