In this article, I evaluate the status of law and economics in Japan from 1990 to 2016. Through the literature review, we can see distinctive features that did not exist in 1990: the establishment of the Japan Law and Economics Association, change in methodologies, increase in empirical research, expansion of research fields, and influencing policies and statutes in the real world. I then conduct case studies about how law and economics research in Japan offers policy recommendations. I present two examples: repeal of protection of short-term leases and establishment of fixed-term building leases. Finally, I explore the outlook of the next stage of law and economics in Japan. More emphasis on empirical research and more English publications on law and economics in Japan are important to move to the next stage.

The adoption of weak remedies, such as declarations or recommendations by the Bangladesh Supreme Court in litigations on state-induced forced slum evictions, significantly contributes to the tardy implementation of court orders. In this context, there is a growing global consensus on the structural injunction—a remedy that enables judges to monitor and bring about governmental compliance with judicial orders of social rights litigation. The Bangladesh Supreme Court faces several real and compelling challenges relating to its constitutional authority and institutional capacity that hinder remedial innovation. Through examining relevant constitutional provisions, judicial approach, and comparative examples, this article argues that the court has the capacity to overcome these constraints. Thus, it advocates judicial reform in Bangladesh to offset the state’s often arbitrary interference with the basic necessity of housing of the slum dwellers.

Existing literature has highlighted the importance of recognizing health fraud offenders’ intentional manipulations of victims’ vulnerabilities. However, the manipulation tactics of health fraud have received little attention. This study aims to extend the current understanding of health fraud by incorporating the concept of emotional labour. Nested in the Chinese context, which owns the most populous ageing population, three sets of qualitative data were collected, including 13 semi-structured interviews, 233 judicial documents, and 197 media reports. The findings suggest that health fraud offenders utilized three types of emotional labour as means of committing crime: including the labour of anxiety relief, the labour of filial piety, and the labour of social networking. This article not only provides novel insights into understanding health fraud, but also contributes to introducing the concept of emotional labour in criminological and socio-legal studies.

This paper analyses how the legal consciousness of Chinese enterprise managers has transformed in the face of drastic changes brought along by major events in socialist China. During the past 70 years, there have been in place a series of radical and pervasive changes in the legal framework constituted by a communist system frequented by mass political campaigns, trailed by a massive liberalized move towards a market economy. By building upon the thesis of legal-consciousness narratives suggested by Ewick and Silbey, this paper discusses how Chinese managers have evolved through various states of “With the Law,” “Against the Law,” and “Under the Law” legal consciousness. It is suggested that, in the coming era of globalization under socialist China, Chinese enterprise managers may start to embrace a new narrative of legal consciousness—“In the Law”—by participating more actively in the socialist system with Chinese characteristics.

The product of an internationalized peace process, Cambodia’s 1993 Constitution restored the monarchy and endowed the Crown with a political safeguarding role that successive kings have been unable to fulfil in practice. After a brief survey of the tragic modern history of Cambodia’s monarchy, this paper outlines the formal constitutional role of the king, highlighting the central dichotomy between the provisions that promise that the king “shall reign but shall not govern” and those that provide the king a more active role as “guarantor.” The paper highlights how this fundamental ambiguity has been borne-out publicly, by focusing on a handful of specific instances in which both King Sihanouk and King Sihamoni are understood to have been strategically absent from the country to avoid signing controversial legislation. Short of providing a veto power in the legislative process, the king’s safeguarding role is shown to manifest in the symbolic denial of royal legitimacy.