Digital Commons Network^™

Landmark Ruling On Whaling From The International Court Of Justice, Mark P. Simmonds

Mark P. Simmonds, OBE

On 31 March 2014, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Japan’s whaling activities in Antarctica did not comply with Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), which permits whaling for scientific purposes. Copious and confusing media commentary followed the decision. This included seemingly conflicting reports from within Japan, which initially indicated whole-hearted compliance with the ruling, which required this whaling to cease, but later suggested that implementation by Japan might be limited to a brief halt followed by a launch of a new Antarctic ‘research’ programme including lethal take.

Is The Law Hopeful?, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This essay asks what legal studies can contribute to the now vigorous debates in economics, sociology, psychology, philosophy, literary studies and anthropology about the nature and sources of hope in personal and social life. What does the law contribute to hope? Is there anything hopeful about law? Rather than focus on the ends of law (social justice, economic efficiency, etc.) this essay focuses instead on the means (or techniques of the law). Through a critical engagement with the work of Hans Vaihinger, Morris Cohen and Pierre Schlag on legal fictions and legal technicalities, the essay argues that what is “hopeful” …

The Anti-Network: Private Global Governance, Legal Knowledge, And The Legitimacy Of The State, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

Global private law has become the source of both anxiety and euphoria. Inherent in this fascination is the assumption that global private law threatens the legitimacy of the state by taking over its functions through new techniques of governance. In this article, I build upon research in one arena of global private governance, the production of legal documentation for the global swap markets, to challenge the most prominent assumptions about private law beyond the state. I argue that rather than focusing on how global private law is or is not an artifact of state power, a body of private norms, …

Real Time: Governing The Market After The Failure Of Knowledge, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This paper presents an ethnographic account of the work of bureaucrats at the Bank of Japan, Japan's central bank, as they engaged in the construction of a "real time" payments system. The paper aims to consider certain shared dimensions of the knowledge practices of late modern anthropologists and economic planners and the special challenges these pose to the study of modern knowledge. In particular, the paper focuses on the effects of the attraction of "self-sustaining systems" consisting of "two sides." It concludes that one central challenge of new ethnographic subjects such as global financial markets is to find ways of …

Placeholders: Engaging The Hayekian Critique Of Financial Regulation, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

Since Friedrich Hayek, debates about the proper relationship between the state and the market, and about the optimal design of regulatory institutions, often turn on assumptions about the workings of legal expertise — and in particular about the difference between public expertise (bureaucratic knowledge) and private expertise (private law). Hayek’s central argument, adopted uncritically by a wide array of policy-makers and academics across the political spectrum, is a temporal one: bureaucratic reasoning is inherently one step behind the market, and hence effective market planning is impossible. In contrast, Hayek argues, private ordering is superior because it is of the moment, …

Reforming Knowledge? A Socio-Legal Critique Of The Legal Education Reforms In Japan, Annelise Riles, Takashi Uchida

Annelise Riles

This article critiques the current Japanese legal education reforms, modeled largely on the United States, by proposing a socio-technical framework for analyzing the distribution of legal expertise in a given society. On one side of the spectrum is the "monocentric" model of legal expertise, in which expertise is monopolized by the profession and legal literacy is low. On the other side of the spectrum is the "polycentric" model of legal expertise, in which a range of social and institutional actors share responsibility for legal expertise and legal literacy is high. If the U.S. is a more monocentric system, the Japanese …

A Global Law Of Jurisdiction And Judgments: Views From The United States And Japan, Kevin M. Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

Japanese and U.S. legal systems, despite surprisingly similar doctrine and outlook on matters of jurisdiction and judgments, often clash: jurisdictions overlap and judgments may go unrespected, while parallel proceedings persist. The current outlook for harmonization through a multilateral Hague convention of general scope is bleak. These two countries are, however, ideally situated to reach a highly feasible bilateral agreement that would provide a better tomorrow in which jurisdiction was allocated appropriately and judgments were respected accordingly.

Standards Of Proof In Japan And The United States, Kevin M. Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

This article treats the striking divergence between Japanese and U.S. civil cases as to standards of proof. The civil-law Japan requires proof to a high probability similar to the criminal standard, while the common-law United States requires only that the burdened party prove the fact to be more likely than not. This divergence not only entails great practical consequences, but also suggests a basic difference in attitudes toward the process of trial. As to the historical causation of the difference in standards of proof, civil-law and common-law standards diverged in the late eighteenth century, probably because of one system’s French …

Securitization And De-Securitization In The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Territorial Dispute, Lukas K. Danner

Dr. Lukas K. Danner

East Asia And The Global Economy: Japan's Ascent, With Implications For China's Future, Stephen Bunker, Paul Ciccantell

Paul Ciccantell

After World War II, Japan reinvented itself as a shipbuilding powerhouse and began its rapid ascent in the global economy. Its expansion strategy integrated raw material procurement, the redesign of global transportation infrastructure, and domestic industrialization. In this authoritative and engaging study, Stephen G. Bunker and Paul S. Ciccantell identify the key factors in Japan’s economic growth and the effects this growth had on the reorganization of significant sectors of the global economy. Bunker and Ciccantell discuss what drove Japan’s economic expansion, how Japan globalized the work economy to support it, and why this spectacular growth came to a dramatic …

German, French And British Manufacturing Strategies Compared: A Growth Towards Each Other, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud DE MEYER

Manufacturing has gained over the last years in attention as a tool to create competitive advantage. For four years now a survey has been carried out by a research team at Insead to build a database on the manufacturing strategies as they are defined and implemented by large European companies. In this paper some of the 1987 data are presented, and a comparison of manufacturing strategies of large companies in the three most important European countries is made. Though the most important conclusion is that there are only slight differences between the three countries, one can see some difference in …

Flexibility: The Next Competitive Battle: The Manufacturing Futures Survey, Arnoud De Meyer, Jinichiro Nakane, Jeffrey M. Miller, Kasra Ferdows

Arnoud DE MEYER

Over the past 4 years research teams from INSEAD (Fontainebleau), Boston University and Waseda University (Tokyo) have administered a yearly survey on the manufacturing strategy of the large manufacturers of the three industrialized regions of the world. In this paper the results for the 1986 survey are compared. One of the most striking results of that year’s survey is the emphasis some of the more advanced manufacturers put on their efforts to overcome the trade-off between flexibility and cost efficiency. In particular for the Japanese respondents these attempts become clear. Europeans and North Americans are not yet seizing the opportunity …

Introductory Review To The Special Issue: Shrinking Cities And Towns: Challenge And Responses, Andreas Luescher, Sujata Shetty

Andreas Luescher

Cities and towns facing sustained population loss are being researched and discussed more than ever before. Once the focus of a relatively small group of architects and urban designers in Europe, these cities and towns are now being studied by scholars across the world. In a range of contexts - from a large, iconic city like Detroit, to a small village in Japan (described by Thomas Feldhoff in this issue), this phenomenon is being observed in unexpected places, and far more frequently than once imagined. A wider population is engaging in this as well, as discussions of the future of …

An Economic Analysis Of Fertility, Market Participation And Marriage Behaviour In Recent Japan, David K. C. Lee, Chin Lee Gan

David LEE Kuo Chuen

This is the 1st attempt in modelling fertility, labor force participation and marriage rate using Japanese data. The authors use Butz and Ward's model and extend it to a simultaneous equation system as in the case of Winegarden. Although the estimates obtained by Full Information Maximum Likelihood and Three Stage Least Squares of the model are statistically significant, some of the signs of the estimates are not consistent to a priori predictions. The crux of the model is that an increase in the wages of men has an unambiguous positive effect on fertility, whereas an increase in wages of women …

Migrations, Curtis Carter

Curtis Carter

No abstract provided.

Japanese Attitudes Toward American Business Involvement In Japan: An Empirical Investigation Revisited, Syed H. Akhter, Toshikazu Hamada

Syed H. Akhter

Generation Xers in Japan continue to draw increasing attention not only because they constitute a promising segment for many products and services but also because they are expected to play a critical role in shaping their country’s political and economic relations with other countries. This paper examines their attitudes toward US products, businesses, and government. It also examines their behavioral intentions and their expectations of their government in terms of managing American business involvement in Japan. Findings and implications are presented.

Nuclear War: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, And A Workable Moral Strategy For Achieving And Preserving World Peace, Raymond Wilson

Raymond Wilson

Review Of "Women & Family In Contemporary Japan" By Susan Holloway And "Transforming Japan: How Feminism And Diversity Are Making A Difference" By Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow, G. Espinetti, Vilma Seeberg, L. Malone

Vilma Seeberg

No abstract provided.

Expert Seminar The Employment Relationship Beyond Eu And Across National Borders - Challenges And Responses Tuesday 11 March 2014, 09.15-16.00, Michele Faioli

Michele Faioli

No abstract provided.

A Regional Security Complex Account Of The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Conflict, Lukas K. Danner

Dr. Lukas K. Danner

No abstract provided.

The Wages Of Belonging: Rare Earths From China, And The Return Of Gatt À La Carte, Chin Leng Lim, J. H. Senduk

Chin Leng Lim

China has lost the Rare Earths case before a Panel which, however, split 2:1 on whether the Chinese Accession Protocol's general ban on export duties would allow General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XX to be invoked. The question affects whether other Recently Acceded Members' (RAMs') WTO-plus terms of accession should generally be read together with the GATT. Export quotas are unproblematic because Article XI is contained in the GATT. China's quota-based conservation measures were however strictly scrutinized, raising other questions about the room RAMs have to invoke Article XX if they might have to depend upon highly …