This book is a critique of the rapidly 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 detailed coverage of Japan.
Legal education systems, like legal systems themselves, were framed across Asia without exception according to foreign models. These reflect the vestiges of colonialism, and can be said to amount to imitating the style and purposes of legal education typical in Western and relatively "pure" common law and civilian systems. Today, however, we see Asian legal education coming into its own and beginning to accept responsibility for designing curricula and approaches that fit the region’s particular needs. This book explores how conventional "transplanted" approaches as regards program design as well as modes of teaching are, or are on the cusp of being, reimagined and discerns emerging home-grown traces of innovation replacing imitation in countries and universities across East Asia.
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.
This book describes the history, present status and possible future models of clinical legal education (CLE) in 12 Asian countries, with particular focus on the Asian character of CLE as it has evolved in different countries.
This work explores the tension in East Asia between the trend towards a convergence of legal practices in the direction of a universal model and a reassertion of local cultural practices. The trend towards convergence arises in part from 'globalisation', from 'rule of law programs' promulgated by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank, and from widespread migration in the region, whilst the opposing trend arises in part from moves to resist such 'globalisation'. This book explores a wide range of issues related to this key problem, covering China in particular, where resolving differences in conceptions about the rule of law is a key issue as China begins to integrate itself into the World Trade Organisation regime.
Comparative constitutional law is a field of increasing importance around the world, but much of the literature is focused on Europe, North America, and English-speaking jurisdictions. The importance of Asia for the broader field is demonstrated here i
This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of globalization on the Indian legal profession. Employing a range of original data from twenty empirical studies, the book details the emergence of a new corporate legal sector in India including large and sophisticated law firms and in-house legal departments, as well as legal process outsourcing companies. As the book's authors document, this new corporate legal sector is reshaping other parts of the Indian legal profession, including legal education, the development of pro bono and corporate social responsibility, the regulation of legal services, and gender, communal, and professional hierarchies with the bar. Taken as a whole, the book will be of interest to academics, lawyers, and policymakers interested in the critical role that a rapidly globalizing legal profession is playing in the legal, political, and economic development of important emerging economies like India, and how these countries are integrating into the institutions of global governance and the overall global market for legal services.
This book surveys the treaty practice of Asian States. It undertakes a study of nine prominent Asian States, namely Bangladesh, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and The Philippines. One chapter each deals with the treaty practice of these States by reflecting on the theoretical foundations of treaty practice at the domestic level, including a query whether the State follows the theory of monism or dualism or a mix of these two; the relationship between treaties and the Constitution; the relationship between treaties and legislation; and the relationship between treaties and domestic customary law, if any. The chapters also review the participation of the respective States in the drafting of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT); position on and reservations to the VCLT; and reference of the VCLT in the treaties concluded by the States. Other aspects covered in chapters include constitutional provisions relating to treaties; domestic law, if any (for example, Nepal has a legislation on treaties); ratification process and practice; judicial practice, covering case law at the domestic level; the position of the State on the interpretation of treaties; and mechanism for the implementation of treaties at the domestic level, if any. The chapters identify leading cases, if any, relating to treaties to which the State was a party before international courts/tribunals. It deals with treaty compliance issues, including response to alleged violations of treaties; termination of treaties, if any; response to termination, if any; and participation in treaty bodies. It provides a panorama of treaties, to which the State is a party, as well as the most conspicuous treaties to which the State is not a party and the reasons thereof. The concluding chapter contains some general observations on Asian treaty practice.
Globally, the methodologies of legal education have not changed in any fundamental way, some methods dating back hundreds of years. Law schools have relied, for too long, on passive learning methods such as lectures or cases. Clinical legal education provides an alternative that is more than just another pedagogical method. It provides a way for students to experience their emerging professional selves, while providing services or projects with poor and underrepresented clients. This book documents both the historical origins of clinical experiments in the earliest days of US university legal education, and the now-global reach of clinical pedagogy as a proven tool for effective training of legal professionals.
