During the 1980s and 1990s Asian 'developmental states' attracted much attention in political science and economics literature, but the role of law in the economic development was neglected. It was only after the Asian crisis of 1997 that many analysts began to focus on a lack of regulation and transparency as a major factor triggering the crisis. The crucial questions now are how successful the current reforms will be, and which features of the Asian approach to commercial law will be resistant to reform pressures. This book examines the prospects for commercial law reform in Asia, giving particular attention to Japan and Singapore, as frequently cited role models for Asian developmentalism, and also examining development related business laws in countries such as China, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

This book fills a gap in the literature by presenting a comprehensive overview of the key issues relating to law and development in Asia. Over recent decades, experts in law and development have produced multiple theories on law and development, none of which were derived from close study of Asian countries, and none of which fit very well with the existing evidence of how law actually functioned in these countries during periods of rapid economic development. The book discusses the different models of law and development, including both the developmental state model of the 1960s and the neo-liberal model of the 1980s, and shows how development has worked out in practice in relation to these models in a range of Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Singapore, India and Mongolia. Particular themes examined include constitutionalism, judicial and legal reform; labour law; the growing importance of private rights; foreign investment and the international law of development. Reflecting the complexity of Asian law and society, both those who believe in an "Asian Way" which is radically different from law and development in other parts of the world, as well as those who believe the arc of law and development is essentially universal, will find support in this book.

The World Bank Legal Review is a publication for policy makers and their advisers, attorneys, and other professionals engaged in the field of international development. It offers a combination of legal scholarship, lessons from experience, legal developments, and recent research on the many ways in which the application of the law and the improvement of justice systems promote poverty reduction, economic development, and the rule of law. In keeping with the theme of the World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development, and following the success of the World Bank Group’s Legal Forum on “Law, Equity, and Development” in December 2005, volume 2 of The World Bank Legal Review focuses on issues of equity and development. The volume draws together some of the key ideas of the Legal Forum, including articles by many of its distinguished participants, and explores the role of equity in the development process, highlighting how legal and regulatory frameworks and equitable justice systems can do much to level the playing field in the political, economic, and sociocultural domains, as well as how they can reinforce existing inequalities. Consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of this endeavour, Law, Equity and Development contains work by academics and practitioners in law, criminal justice, economics, human rights, social development, cultural studies, and anthropology.

This book is the second volume of a planned trilogy on legal protection of citizens' rights against the state in East and Southeast Asia. The first volume was published in 1997, under the title of Comparative Studies on the Judicial Review System in East and Southeast Asia. The third book will deal with the subject of due process of law with respect to administrative decision-making in these areas. This second volume examines the historical development and present function of governmental liability in Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Both theoretical and practical problems of governmental liability are analyzed through comparative perspectives. As German and Dutch law have a strong influence in East and Southeast Asian countries, the governmental liability system in these two countries is also discussed. During the process of modernizing the economy and legal systems, especially with the globalization of the economy and the internationalization of Western law, it is inevitable for countries in East and Southeast Asia to introduce a governmental compensation system. However, because of a lack of experience of civil society and the tradition of the rule of law, of shortage of finance, and of different viewpoints on human rights, the introduced and planned governmental compensation systems in East and Southeast Asia could not be expected to function in the same way as those in Western countries. This book is based on the assumption that it is better to prevent damage from happening than compensating for it with money.

Report on the role of law in economic and social development, with particular reference to legal research - discusses obstacles, institutional frameworks, etc., and recommends a social sciences approach and methodology. References.

This manuscript is a collection of essays on various issues in Asia-Pacific legal systems. It has been written within the framework of comparative legal research; thus, chapters address various of the ASEAN nations, as well as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The topics in this comprehensive volume, which offer Canadian perspectives on contemporary Asian law, include securities, prostitution, environmental, and constitutional law.

This new book is an edited collection of papers arising from a conference on Law and Development in the twenty-first century held in 2001. It is in honour of the work of Dr Peter Slinn.

This informative book examines examples of law reform projects in post-socialist and post-authoritarian states in Asia, identifies common problems, and proposes analytical frameworks for understanding them.

Legal transplantation and reform in the name of globalisation is central to the transformation of Asian legal systems. The contributions to Examining Practice, Interrogating Theory: Comparative Legal Studies in Asia analyse particular legal changes in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The contributions also concurrently critically analyse the utility of scholarly developments in comparative legal studies, particularly discourse analysis; regulatory theory; legal pluralism; and socio-legal approaches, in the study of Asian legal systems. While these approaches are regularly invoked in the study of transforming European legal systems, the debate of their relevance and explanatory capacity beyond the European context is recent. By bringing together these diverse analytical tools and enabling a comparison of their insights through Asian empirical case studies, this book makes an invaluable contribution to the debates concerning legal change and the methods by which it is analysed globally, and within Asia.

This yearbook is a compilation of thematically arranged essays that critically analyseemerging developments, issues, and perspectives across different branches of law. Itconsists of research from scholars around the world with the view that comparativestudy would initiate dialogue on law and legal cultures across jurisdictions. The themesvary from jurisprudence of comparative law and its methodologies to intrinsic detailsof specific laws like memory laws. The sites of the enquiries in different chapters aredifferent legal systems, recent judgements, and aspects of human rights in a comparativeperspective. It comprises seven parts wherein the first part focuses on general themesof comparative law, the second part discusses private law through a comparative lens,and the third, fourth and fifth parts examine aspects of public law with special focuson constitutional law, human rights and economic laws. The sixth part engages withcriminal law and the last part of the book covers recent developments in the field ofcomparative law. This book intends to trigger a discussion on issues of comparativelaw from the vantage point of Global South, not only focusing on the Global North.It examines legal systems of countries from far-east and sub-continent and presentsinsights on their working. It encourages readers to gain a nuanced understanding ofthe working of law, legal systems and legal cultures, adding to existing deliberationson the constituents of an ideal system of law.