This paper explores the relationship between law and social theory through a discussion of the shifting views over the last century. The conversation is framed by the example of publication bias in private-public partnership networks, and the inability of a single social theory, including theories of morality and economic utility, to explain the situation’s complexities. The paper argues that where social theory meets law an added value can be generated in terms of legal doctrine if the precarious relationship between autonomy and interconnectedness is respected in terms of transversality, responsiveness, and self-normativity.

This paper addresses the controversial concept of legal culture. It first considers the different meanings of the term and the variety of debates in which it figures. It then goes on to consider difficulties in deciding the units to which the term “legal culture” is applied, and the problems in using the term in explanations. It concludes by examining the way assumptions about what gives legal culture its coherence have implications for explaining how and when it changes. In each section of the argument an attempt is also made to show the relevance of these questions for the Asian Journal of Law and Society as seen in the papers published in its first issue.

Abstract

This paper traces the development of law and society studies in South Korea, elucidates the political implications of the academic practices of law and society scholars, and identifies the forms of their political engagement. It canvasses the situation of law and society studies in the pre- and post-Liberation periods and analyzes the changes that have occurred since law and society came to be studied and taught in universities. The paper shows how the early generations of scholarship were sidestepped in the 1980s by the so-called “third-generation legal scholarship” and delineates the counter-hegemonic movement launched by the new generation of scholars. It throws light on the empowerment of critical law and society scholars in the post-democratization phases of the 1990s and 2000s, when many of those scholars actively participated in policy-making and civil advocacy, and discusses the tensions in those developments.

Against the background of increasing social diversification in a market economy, this paper examines the challenges confronting China’s existing power structure and system of authority. Both to overcome the legitimation crisis of ruling and to achieve a soft landing of the political reform depend on reconstructing the authority of the rule of law through judicial reform as the breakthrough point. For this very reason, the top-level design of regime transition can follow a two-step strategy of building a rule of law country first, to be followed by restructuring power, so as to achieve democracy via the rule of law. It also proposes a conception to institutionalize the rule of law, emphasizing that the alternative three-review mechanism is both necessary and feasible, in that a top-level design of judicial review can contribute to our strivings for judicial fairness, an implementation of budget review and accountability review at the grassroots level for fiscal democracy, and the synergy of high-level and grassroots powers for a virtuous circle between the rule of law authority and democratic polity in mutual enhancement. There also comes the moment for plural efforts to both drive and achieve the rule of law based on the three-review mechanism.

It has long been argued that the legal system does not have a strong role in explaining China’s economic miracle; therefore, China is often presented as an anomaly for the “law matters” hypothesis. This study contributes to the debate from a unique perspective by examining the connection between law and the operation of factor markets. In China, laws and regulations governing factor markets have been systematically distorted by the government, intentionally or unintentionally, to facilitate the nation’s enormous economic growth in the short run at the cost of environmental quality, ordinary citizens’ welfare, and long-term economic health. Thus, China has become a fast-growing but unsustainable economy.

Court mediation is now playing a crucial role in the Chinese legal system. Based on two case studies in Yunnan Province, this paper examines how court mediation works in Southwest China. It finds that court mediation can expand the capacity of the court concerning case acceptance, and is capable of fixing multicentre disputes and complicated social problems. However, the paper also points out that when encountering some ill-suited cases, justice may be undermined and the judge’s role may be confused. Therefore, it is necessary to pass some law to exclude the ill-suited cases from the mediation track when promoting court mediation in Southwest China.

Unlike Western common-law jurisdictions where plea bargaining has been acknowledged, official discourse in Hong Kong denies the existence of plea bargaining. However, defence lawyers are staunch supporters of its use behind the scenes. Using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Hong Kong criminal defence lawyers, it was found that lawyers’ justifications are based on four main grounds: it is non-coercive because the final decision is left to the accused; negotiations avoid the risks of trials; plea bargaining is a practical solution that is in the best interests of the client and the state; and the courts implicitly tolerate the practice. The findings can be explained by Eisenstein and Jacob’s (1991) courtroom workgroup model. The present study seeks to bridge the gap in the literature where plea bargaining has only been discussed predominately in the context of Western common-law jurisdictions.

Generally speaking there has been a relative dearth of serious scholarship focusing on the evolution of Indian labour law in its economic, social, and political contexts. Such work as there is tends to be constituted of fragmented and short journal articles and notes, including those by labour economists and industrial relations scholars. The present work undertakes a survey of the literature in the field, examining first the various periods through which Indian labour law has evolved up to the present time, and second the extent to which the labour law system can be seen to have fulfilled its two core objectives: the protection of labour and the maintenance of industrial peace. The survey reveals that Indian “labour law” in the formal sense has very little purchase in terms of its application in pursuit of its objects. This, in turn, suggests that some other approach is required to reach a more grounded and accurate understanding of how, and to what effect, labour is regulated in India.