This book takes a comparative approach to how 14 jurisdictions from around the world deal with pre-nuptial and post-nuptial marital agreements, particularly in relation to financial relations.

This article considers the reactions in Japan to the newly introduced quasi-jury system. It illustrates how first-hand experience with jury justice has transformed Japan from a country hostile to that institution to one where it is widely endorsed. This finding undermines the popular notion that Japan's legal culture is incongruous with this democratic institution, and thus augurs well for analogous transitions being made in other East Asian countries with legal traditions similar to that of Japan. Furthermore, it underlines the reasons why those countries in the West that are letting jury trial erode should perhaps think twice about doing so.

The paper examines the tension amongst the Indonesian government and Islamic organisations in dealing with the plurality of interpretation within Islamic tradition and at the same time maintaining the unity and harmony of the Muslim ummah. I provide two case studies here: first, the issue of determining the first and the end of Ramadan and also 10 Zul Hijjah (for Idu al-Adha). Second, who has the authority to issue halal certificate? Due to different methods of hisab (astronomical calculation) and ru'yah (sighting a new crescent), Islamic organisations (Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama and Majelis Ulama Indonesia) have produced different fatwas. At the same time, the Government has to make announcement on which dates to begin or to end fasting. With regard to the second issue, there is currently a tension between the Government and the MUI as the first thinks it falls into its authority whereas the latter insists that halal certificate is a written fatwa which belongs to its ‘jurisdiction’.

The questions are: how does the government decide which fatwa to choose, and what are the reactions of Islamic organisations when their views differ with the position of the government? There is also tension in society in celebrating Idul Fitri and Idul Adha on different dates. How far should the government go to accommodate such different views, to maintain harmony in the community?

In 2007 the Academy Award winning director of Shall We Dance released his new film, a critique of the Japanese criminal justice system from a wrongful conviction perspective. In this article, I use the filmas avehicle to serve three disparate goals. First, I provide the firstlegal critique of the film, a genre of legal scholarship developing over the past 15 years. Second, I use the film to reflect on criminal justice reforms in Japan, in particular the introduction of the Lay Judge System (quasi-jury saiban-in seido) from 2009. Third, I critically ask whether use of film as a legal text assists or distracts from my primary pedagogical objectives in teaching comparative Japanese law. I conclude with a cautious recommendation of I Just Didn't Do It as legal cinema, as a catalyst for reform of the Japanese criminal justice system and as an educational text.

This article will consider the role that Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘Dham Kha Chen Ki Khendum’ or ‘Nangkha Nangdrik’) currently plays in resolving legal conflict in Bhutan. With a Constitution that has committed to the pursuit of Gross National Happiness, non-adversarial dispute resolution processes that promote continuing relationships and goodwill assume greater importance. One difficulty for Bhutan is that alternative dispute resolution procedures such as mediation (Dhum Drik) are being referred to in enactments of the Bhutanese National Council and National Assembly (bicameral parliament), without a shared understanding as to the characteristics and functionality of these procedures. This article will focus particularly on the current practice of mediation in Bhutan and investigate whether particular models of mediation are more suited to the Bhutanese context, given the particularities of Bhutanese culture, the search for gross national Buddhism.

This paper examines the relationship between three religio-legal traditions and their interactions and responses to the concept of gender equality as reflected in their inheritance practices. Specifically, questions of accommodation and authenticity will be explored through the Hindu, Confucian and Islamic traditions as they exist in contemporary India, Singapore and Hong Kong. While the primary focus will be on the current state of law and practice, the paper will begin personal laws during the period of British colonization. The impact of British jurisprudence will be recounted as background to understanding the contemporary state of the three traditions. For India and Singapore this history will include the impact of their independence movements on their personal laws. Hong Kong's history will include the impact of the territory's return to China.

Prevailing discourse on multiculturalismi tend to focus on its merits in protecting the cultures and traditions of minority groups within the framework of the politics of accommodation. Less discussed are its implications on the rights and autonomy of members of the groups themselves who may be adversely affected by the arrangement. This paper attempts to fill the lacunae. It focuses on the problems arising from autonomy granted to the Muslim community of Singapore to determine its personal law, on some segments of the community. Unlike the rest of the citizens of Singapore, the Muslims are bound by their personal law in the domain of the family which they cannot relinquish as long as they remain Muslims. The system which began during the period of British colonial administration has remained ever since. Differences in the mechanisms as well as the orientation of social agencies in determining the Muslim law from those affecting the nonMuslims, invite unwarranted implications on the rights of Muslims, specifically. The problem is reinforced by the strong tendency of state actors to over-rely on dominant groups within the Muslim community in determining matters of Muslim law at the expense of competing ideas and orientation. The absence of choice of law for Muslims poses a predicament to those who do not wish to renounce their religion but maintain differences in perceptions of the Muslim law. This paper analyzes these problems in the arena of the Muslim law on marriage, divorce and inheritance. It also highlights how the arrangement has, in some instances, resulted in the exclusion of Muslims as a whole from the purview of specific national laws and influence policies affecting them against the preferences of the group's members. These issues have generally received scant attention, if at all, eclipsed perhaps by the greater focus on the merits of multiculturalism in protecting minority rights. Some plausible ways, in which the unwitting implications of legal pluralism on the members of the Muslim community can be addressed, taking into consideration both their right as members of the group as well as citizens of the state, are also discussed.

Since the “open doof” policies adopted by China in 1978 ended 30 years of isolation, introduced massive economic and legal reforms, encouraged foreign investment and resurrected private enterprise, China has become the world's second largest and fastest growing economy. In these circumstances, the development of franchising was inevitable. However, in addition to the normal commercial and cultural issues which challenge any franchise system in its international expansion, foreign franchisors proposing to enter China have faced additional regulatory obstacles. Market entry, participation in particular business sectors, and even the use of franchising as a method of business operation and expansion have all raised complex regulatory issues.

This paper addresses the liberalisation of market access for foreign franchise systems under China's World Trade Organisation accession commitments, and the new regulatory regime for franchising in China under the 2007 Commercial Franchise Regulation.

Derivative actions have just been newly introduced into Vietnamese company law in 2010. The adoption of the derivative action is a striking signal of Vietnam's affiliation with the litigation bandwagon of East Asian countries. Unlike those Asian countries where the issue of the transplanting and functioning of derivative actions are well-discussed topics in the corporate governance literature, such discussions have not yet begun in Vietnam. In fact, the derivative action was adopted without a domestic academic debate to pave the way for its introduction. The lack of discussion on the one hand is troublesome to those who want to review the transplantation of the derivative action to Vietnam. On the other hand, this absence also detaches the Vietnamese academic debate from the on-going international debate on the subject.

Seeking possible explanations for the absence of such debate is the first aim of this article. Towards this end, the article proposes three explanation which help to explain why the derivative action had never been widely discussed in Vietnam before its introduction. Such explanations enable us to better understand the context in which the action was introduced. Moreover, the explanations provide us with hints to predict the feasibility of the derivative action in the jurisdiction. The second aim of this article is to give some suggestions to improve the newly-adopted regulations on derivative actions. For this purpose, some of the ambiguities and deficiencies of the regulations are discussed. Based on the understanding of its surrounding context and its own deficiencies, the article comes up with conclusions on the future of the derivative action in Vietnam.

This article argues that recent reforms to Japan's trust law regime have not fully exploited the potential of the trust in an ageing society. It argues that the commercial emphasis of the reforms has intangible ramifications for the concept of the trust in Japan that render the trust of questionable suitability for welfare oriented applications. The article also explores the potential of the courts to rescue the welfare role of the trust, in part by developing doctrine responsively to a given trust arrangement. It concludes that in an evolving social, political, and economic climate (including the Global Financial Crisis and its effect on the demand for financial products involving securitization), it is the role of the courts in developing doctrine that may bring balance to the competing demands placed upon the trust in an ageing society.

By religious legal pluralism we usually mean state-recognised legal pluralism, such as the kind of legal pluralism implemented in Singapore through the Administration of Muslim Law Act. But there is also religious legal pluralism outside State recognition and enforcement. Many religions have very long legal traditions which have survived, often without much support or official recognition by States (Jewish law, for example). In this paper we shall look at one such tradition, the canon law of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church and its implementation by the Church in Singapore, including the establishment of very busy ecclesiastical tribunals in Singapore to administer disputes relating to the possible nullity of religious marriages, for example. The hope is that this example of Canon Law in Singapore will show that there can be very detailed and formal religious laws implemented by formal institutions such as tribunals outside the ambit of the State.

China and Australia are extremely significant trade partners and investors. Australia has a very well established competition law, now called the Competition and Consumer Law 2010, with a well-established merger regime. China has a relatively new competition law, the Anti-Monopoly Law 2007. This article compares merger control in the two jurisdictions. The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has already referred to an Australian decision in rejecting a merger, the only reference to a foreign decision to date, which confirms the utility of the comparison. This article critically evaluates the determinations of MOFCOM and compares the approach of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian regulator. It assesses the transparency and predictability of procedures and decision-making in the two jurisdictions.

This article reviews some of the roles environmental lawyers have played in ensuring environmental justice in Bangladesh. It leans on law and social movement theories to explicate the choice (and ensuing success) of litigation as a movement strategy in Bangladesh. The activists successfully moved the courts to read the right to a decent environment into the fundamental right to life, and this has had the far-reaching effect ofconstituting a basis forstanding forthe activists and other civil society organisations. The activists have also sought to introduce emerging international law principles into the jurisprudence of the courts. These achievements notwithstanding, the paper notes that litigation is not a sustainable way to institute enduring environmental protection in any jurisdiction and recommends the utilisation of the reputation and recognition gained through litigation to deploy or encourage more sustainable strategies.

A growing number of religious minorities have been prosecuted for the criminal offence of ‘insulting a religion’, specifically Islam, in Indonesia. Both local and international human rights organisations have condemned the perceived misuse of what is widely referred to in Indonesia as the ‘Blasphemy Law’. This article will analyse the application for judicial review of the Blasphemy Law, which was submitted to the Indonesian Constitutional Court in 2009. It will critique the various submissions made to the court and analyse the historic decision of the judiciary, which upheld the validity of the Blasphemy Law. In doing this, it will explore how the relationship between law and religion, particularly Islam, has been debated, negotiated and articulated in democratic Indonesia