The author argues that in Thai society, woman- and family-related issues fall outside the direct domain of law. The family as a subsistence unit has been challenged by opportunities for wage labor in cities and towns. These opportunities, which have dispersed the family unit and eroded the authority of parents, have been particularly advantageous for women, who are seen as good workers, obedient and undemanding. Yet the power of the family as a psychological unit in Thailand has not altered. Likewise, although women have made gains in the market and the workplace, the possibility of achieving greater parity with men is hindered by the continued psychological force of the traditional “beauty culture,” their historical place as appendages to men, the cultural devaluation of manual work, and the religious definition of women as polluting. While the law is not irrelevant to these issues, they are neither determined by law nor are they likely to be altered by legal change.

The forthcoming publication in English of Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy by Jürgen Habermas comes at a time when the nature and role of legal studies in the United States is being problematized. In both law schools and in the broader scientific and humanistic discussion of law (the totality of which, for the sake of brevity, I call legal studies), the consensus of more than a generation is breaking down, and a broad debate over what counts as interesting problems, adequate research, and useful results is emerging. This timing is central because Habermas has been a key figure in an important debate about the nature and prospects of social knowledge; a debate which has everything to do with the debate about the future of legal studies.

The author examines the persistence of discriminatory inheritance practices that exclude daughters from inheriting land, houses, and other unmovable property from their parents among urban Toba Batak people in Indonesia. These practices persist in spite of national legal policy mandating equal rights for men and women. Drawing on Sally Falk Moore's concept of the semi-autonomous social field, the essay argues that traditional forms of inheritance are maintained through the marga-association, which brings together people who share the same name and affirms principles of patrilineal descent as the defining characteristics of Batak identity in contemporary urban settings. Both men and women voluntarily affirm these principles, arguing that because a woman becomes part of her husband's lineage at the time of marriage, she is not entitled to her father's estate. The marga-association thus acts as an insulating mechanism between state law and traditional (adat) law, protecting the latter from the legal transformations imposed by the state.

Patricia Steinhoff (1993) reviewed five books in her review essay “Pursuing the Japanese Police” but singled out my Forces of Order (Bayley 1991) for extended commentary because it was a “classic” that epitomized the “benign,” “friendly,” and “answers-for-America” (p. 830) school of writing about the Japanese police. Her review of my work, as well as the others, was insightful, knowledgeable, well argued, and fair. Some of her comments were strongly worded, but there's no fun in writing a review essay if you can't get off a few zingers.

The author traces the changing social and legal status of the Filipina by examining the shifting Filipino colonial and legal heritage from the immigration of Muslim Malays in the 14th century to the present. She argues that women enjoyed high social standing in what is now the Philippine Republic until colonization by Spain in the 17th century, when Spanish customs, religion, and law imposed many restraints on women. Only with the establishment of the Philippine Republic in 1946 were efforts begun to reverse these restrictive policies. The author focuses particularly on the 1986 Constitution and the changes in the Family Code that have enhanced the legal equality of women within the family. She also calls for continued political work to assure the implementation of existing law and further legal changes that will benefit women.

The author discusses the complex ways in which a multiplicity of conflicting laws relevant to marriage and divorce have affected Malaysian women, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Further, it examines efforts to standardize statute and practice in these areas from the 1970s to the present. It focuses in particular on multiple marriage statutes in effect until 1970 for Chinese and Hindu Malays and on the Law Reform Act 1976 that attempted to regulate customary marriage practices for non-Muslims. It also examines the codification of Islamic family law in the 1980s as a way of clarifying the legal rights of Muslim women, focusing on the Kelantan Island Family Law Enactment 1983. It also describes political action by women in Malaysia to raise public awareness about domestic violence, to amend the Penal Code on matters of violence against women, and to establish a training program for police in rape investigation.

This essay focuses on factors internal to the organization of social life in two regions of Indonesia to explain differences in patterns of dispute management that occur despite similarities in forums, substantive property categories, and types of disputes—primarily over inheritance and property rights in land. In Minangkabau, where disputes are usually phrased in terms of inherited property, are concerned with the status of land, and are more likely to expand into major political battles, rice land is intensively farmed and is held by matrilineal clans that are also political units. In Ambon, disputes are usually phrased in terms of self-acquired property, are concerned with the status of trees, and are less political; people combine fishing and gathering with harvesting sago palms, distinguish rights to land from rights to trees, lack stable descent groups, and share the land with recent migrants. Although increasing monetization in Minangkabau is making property relationships more complex, while increasing sedentarization in Ambon is simplifying property relationships, both regions are moving toward a concept of property rights akin to the Western concept of ownership.

Although the Thai government's 1986 Land Titling Project was designed to enhance security of tenure, promote efficient use of farmland, and increase agricultural productivity in Thailand, a study of villages in Chiang Mai province suggests that the project-in conjunction with population growth, rising land prices, and increases in commercial crop production-may have stimulated conflicts among villagers, encouraged rural indebtedness, increased small farmers' risk of losing their lands, and exacerbated economic differences between rich and poor. In order for the Thai government to realize the expected benefits of land titling, it should also prevent the accumulation of large estates by limiting the size of landholdings and should provide security for small farmers by guaranteeing prices for agricultural commodities.

After a dam was built in Central Java, Indonesia, farmers who elected to move to higher ground rather than resettle in a another region remain poor and practice agricultural techniques that promote soil erosion. Due to population pressure and the lack of arable land, displaced villagers are cultivating greenbelt areas and tidal lands around the reservoir, encouraged by the government, which granted them oral permission to do so in order to calm unrest generated by farmers' complaints over the meager monetary compensation they received for lands flooded by the dam. Although the government requires farmers to plant tree crops, villagers are also planting annual crops to meet daily food needs, thus promoting erosion and rapid silting of the reservoir.

Mbesuk ing rejaning zaman yen ono iwak bader mangan manggar iku pratanda tlatah kene bakal antuk kemakmuran

(Tomorrow, in modern times, when the bader fish eats coconut flowers, that is a sign that prosperity will come to this area)