Books in the Routledge Law in Asia series

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the key issues relating to law and development in Asia. It discusses the different models of law and development, and shows how development has worked out in practice in a range of Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Singapore, India and Mongolia.

This edited volume is a timely and insightful contribution to the growing discourses on public law in Asia. Surveying many important jurisdictions in Asia including mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, the book addresses recent developments and experiences in the field of public interest litigation. The book offers a comparative perspective on public law, asking crucial questions about the role of the state and how private citizens around Asia have increasingly used the forms, procedures and substance of public law to advance public and political aims.

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 informal legal rights both in Indonesia and elsewhere, and examines how thinking about these issues has evolved over time in Indonesia. It provides an in-depth study of the ways that government policies on adat communities are developed, changed and implemented, and how different actors give meaning to these policies, particularly government bodies with authority to manage land and forests, which exercise discretion as to the operational implementation of ideas about adat groups as legal persons and ulayat land rights as land title, thus enabling their exploitation by government and business. The book highlights how these issues are becoming more pressing as problems relating to legal personhood and rights to traditional customary land are increasingly giving rise to violent conflict, dispossession and marginalisation. It also demonstrates how adat communities can take action, and are doing so, to protect their legal positions.

This book provides a systematic and interdisciplinary examination of law and legal institutions in Malaysia. It examines Malaysian legal issues from historical, social and political perspectives, and discusses the role of law in relation to Malaysian multiculturalism, religion, politics and society.

This book considers the recent growth of constitutional cases in Singapore in the last ten years. It examines the underpinnings of Singapore¿s constitutional system, explores how Singapore courts have dealt with issues related to rights and power, and sets developments in Singapore in the wider context of new thinking and constitutional developments worldwide. It argues that Singapore is witnessing a shift in legal and political culture as both judges and citizens display an increasing willingness to engage with constitutional ideas and norms.

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 institutional safeguards, such as constitutional courts and human rights commissions. On closer examination, however, the picture is very complex, with constitutional developments differing greatly between states. This book explores a range of current constitutional developments in the different states of Southeast Asia through a distinct political lens. Drawing on comparative and single case studies, it considers various constitutional areas, including constitution drafting, human rights, legal safeguards and the continuing role of the military, sets constitutional developments in the wider political and historical context of each country, and makes comparisons both with Western democracies and with other developing regions. The book concludes by assessing overall how far constitutional practices and trajectories are converging towards a liberal Western model or towards a distinctly Southeast Asian model.

This book provides a systematic and interdisciplinary examination of law and legal institutions in Malaysia. It examines Malaysian legal issues from historical, social and political perspectives, and discusses the role of law in relation to Malaysian multiculturalism, religion, politics and society.

This book considers the recent growth of constitutional cases in Singapore in the last ten years. It examines the underpinnings of Singapore¿s constitutional system, explores how Singapore courts have dealt with issues related to rights and power, and sets developments in Singapore in the wider context of new thinking and constitutional developments worldwide. It argues that Singapore is witnessing a shift in legal and political culture as both judges and citizens display an increasing willingness to engage with constitutional ideas and norms.

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 ΓÇô in many cases with considerable success. This has sparked growing fears for the future of basic human rights, and, in particular, the rights of women and sexual and ethnic minority groups. There have, in fact, been more prosecutions of unorthodox religious groups since the fall of Soeharto in 1998 than there were under the three decades of his authoritarian rule. Some Indonesians even feel that the pluralism they thought was constitutionally guaranteed by the national ideology, the Pancasila, is now under threat. This book contains essays exploring these issues by prominent scholars, lawyers and activists from within Indonesia and beyond, offering detailed accounts of the political and legal implications of rising resurgent Islamism in Indonesia. Examining particular cases of intolerance and violence against minorities, it also provides an account of the responses offered by a weak state that now seems too often unwilling to intervene to protect vulnerable minorities against rising religious intolerance.

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. This book contains essays exploring these issues by prominent scholars, lawyers and activists from within Indonesia and beyond. Examining particular cases of intolerance and violence against minorities, it also provides an account of the responses offered by a weak state that seems often unwilling to intervene to protect vulnerable minorities against rising religious intolerance.

Considers how human rights are viewed and implemented in Asia. This study discusses the problems arising from the fact that ideas of human rights have evolved in Western liberal democracies, and examines how far such values are compatible with Asian values, and applicable in Asian contexts. It also contains chapters on France and the USA.

Over the last two decades courts have become major players in the political landscape in Asia. This book assesses what is driving this apparent trend toward judicialization in the region. It looks at the variations within the judicialization trend, and how these variations affect political practice and policy outcomes.

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.

"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 information environment through time"--

A contribution to the field of public law discourse in Asia. Surveying many of the important jurisdictions in Asia including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, India, South Korea and the Philippines, it addresses the various developments and experiences in the field of public interest litigation.

This title considers how rule of law is viewed and implemented in Asia. Chapters on France and the USA provide a benchmark on how the concept has evolved, is applied and is implemented in a Roman law and a common law jurisdiction.

Offers an assessment of legal developments in China and Vietnam by examining similarities and differences, and highlighting the factors likely to promote, change or resist the spread of the Chinese model.

Rule of law, one of the pillars of the modern world, has emerged in Western liberal democracies. This book considers how rule of law is viewed and implemented in the different cultural, economic and political context of Asia.

Examines developments in support for victims of crime in Asia. This book discusses international developments, the degree to which support for victims of crime is an import into Asia from the west, and developments in a range of countries, including Thailand, Korea, Taiwan and Japan, India, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines.

This book considers how human rights are viewed and implemented in Asia. It covers not just civil and political rights, but also social and economic rights, and cultural rights.

A critique of the changing nature of legal education in major Asian jurisdictions as diverse as Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam. It provides cross-country comparative material, including western legal education systems, and particularly coverage of Japan.

Examines the new courts created throughout Asia, covering important jurisdictions including human rights, intellectual property disputes, bankruptcy petitions, commercial contracts, public law adjudication, personal law, labour and industrial disputes. This book evaluates their performances, and considers the economic and political implications.

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

This book, based on extensive original research by leading scholars in the field, provides an overall assessment of the state of criminal law, law enforcement and penal policy in Indonesia, considers in depth a wide range of specific areas of criminal law, and discusses recent efforts at reform and their prospects for success.

Examines developments in support for victims of crime in Asia. This book shows how there has been considerable progress in support for victims of crime in Asia, especially in Thailand and Korea, where rights for victims of crime are entrenched in constitutional provisions, and in Taiwan and Japan. It discusses developments in various countries.