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Full-Text Articles in Law
How Does Culture Count In Legal Change?: A Review With A Proposal From A Social Movement Perspective, Setsuo Miyazawa
How Does Culture Count In Legal Change?: A Review With A Proposal From A Social Movement Perspective, Setsuo Miyazawa
Michigan Journal of International Law
We have in this volume four articles on legal change in China and Japan written by four distinguished authors. These articles vary with regard to subject state, specificity of issues, and breadth of analytical scope. They commonly discuss one factor, however: culture. The purpose of this Comment is to examine the way each article uses culture in its explanations of legal change. The Comment concludes with a brief suggestion, from a social movement perspective, on employing culture as an explanatory tool in a non-essentialist way.
The Law And The Non-Law, Katharina Pistor
The Law And The Non-Law, Katharina Pistor
Michigan Journal of International Law
This brief Comment reflects on the construction of the "non-law" as analytical categories in the four contributions. It suggests that the struggle with "non-law" reflects a deeper confusion about the role of law in ordering social relations broadly defined.
The Culture Of Legal Change: A Case Study Of Tobacco Control In Twenty-First Century Japan, Eric A. Feldman
The Culture Of Legal Change: A Case Study Of Tobacco Control In Twenty-First Century Japan, Eric A. Feldman
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article argues that the interaction of international norms and local culture is a central factor in the creation and transformation of legal rules. Like Alan Watson's influential theory of legal transplants, it emphasizes that legal change is frequently a consequence of learning from other jurisdictions. And like those who have argued that rational, self-interested lawmakers responding to incentives such as reelection are the engine of legal change, this Article treats incentives as critical motivators of human behavior. But in place of the cutting-and-pasting of black-letter legal doctrine it highlights the cross-border flow of social norms, and rather than material …
Law And Culture In China And Japan: A Framework For Analysis, John O. Haley
Law And Culture In China And Japan: A Framework For Analysis, John O. Haley
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Comment is divided into two parts. The first sets forth a series of definitional propositions intended for a more general analysis of the interrelationships of law and culture. The second comprises an introduction to the evolution of legal institutions that enables us to understand better the reception and development of Western legal institutions in East Asia and provides context for the four articles and their individual and collective insights.
The Law And Culture Of The Apology In Korean Dispute Settlement (With Japan And The United States In Mind), Ilhyung Lee
The Law And Culture Of The Apology In Korean Dispute Settlement (With Japan And The United States In Mind), Ilhyung Lee
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article addresses the apology in civil dispute settlement in Korea, Japan's neighbor across the East Sea, using the U.S.-Japan comparative discussion as a helpful frame of reference. Part I provides the necessary background on the meaning of the apology and the leading commentary along the U.S.-Japan axis, beginning with the work of Wagatsuma and Rosett. Culture appears in this discussion in two regards. First, a question arises as to whether the very meaning of the apology as noted in the commentary reflects the U.S. cultural orientation, or instead has universal application. Second, some argue that cultural norms explain the …
(Dis)Embedded Women, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann
(Dis)Embedded Women, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann
Michigan Journal of International Law
The position argued in this Article is that women's rights are individual rights. To explain this position, the Article will progress along the following arguments: 1) The dichotomy between Western individualism and non-Western collectivism is false. 2) Much of the debate regarding the role of women and women's rights confuses interest and identity. 3) Women do not necessarily constitute a social group. 4) "Women's" rights are actually universal human rights: they pertain mostly to women, but also to men. 5) The debate about whether women are a social group is rooted in part in differing conceptions of women's embeddedness in …
Of Seeds And Shamans: The Appropriation Of The Scientific And Technical Knowledge Of Indigenous And Local Communities, Naomi Roht-Arriaza
Of Seeds And Shamans: The Appropriation Of The Scientific And Technical Knowledge Of Indigenous And Local Communities, Naomi Roht-Arriaza
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article recasts the debates over access to, and control over, genetic and biological knowledge and resources in terms of the appropriation of indigenous and local communities' knowledge and resources. It first discusses recent examples of appropriation as currently conducted by global biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and agribusiness corporations and their associates in Northern universities, seed and gene banks, and research centers. Second, it describes and exposes the mechanisms of appropriation by focusing on the limited and culturally determined definitions of what is "wild" as opposed to "cultivated," what is "knowledge" and who can possess it, and what are "innovations" and "inventions." …
Cultural Neutrality: A Prerequisite To Arbitral Justice, Giorgio Bernini
Cultural Neutrality: A Prerequisite To Arbitral Justice, Giorgio Bernini
Michigan Journal of International Law
In common parlance, neutrality is often equated with impartiality. Any such assimilation, however, would be incorrect, since neutrality and impartiality are intrinsically different. At the risk of oversimplification, neutrality may be defined as an objective status, i.e. the likelihood that the arbitrator will be, and remain, wholly equidistant in thought and action throughout the arbitral proceedings. Impartiality, on the contrary, partakes more of a subjective status, to be tested in the context of the concrete relations existing between the arbitrator(s) and each individual party. It follows that one can be impartial without being neutral; and conversely, that no arbitrator may …
Transitional Legal Practice And Professional Ideology, Bryant G. Garth
Transitional Legal Practice And Professional Ideology, Bryant G. Garth
Michigan Journal of International Law
This essay assumes that there are three other reasons for studying transnational legal practice. First, such a study provides a way to explore some of the dilemmas that we often overlook about our domestic legal system. In both the domestic and transnational legal settings we are uncomfortable with the idea of law as "merely a business"; troubled by the invasion of "legality" into domains that once had seemed immune from state regulation; wary of the expense of "mega" law and litigation; reticent about a "total justice" which is expected to compensate individual victims of every unpleasant social accident; and nervous …