“Developed” states tend to reflect their own development experience in their dealings with “less developed” states, encouraging replication of their own solutions and processes. This is “recursive” law and development (LAD). This article examines the role of Singapore in LAD processes in the ASEAN region. It finds that Singapore’s LAD efforts are recursive and focused on rule-of-law and governance training, including especially anti-corruption methods. These are conducted not via a special agency, but via co-operation that is multilevel, multidimensional, and untrumpeted. LAD can learn lessons from this approach.

In the 1990s, Japan officially launched its first legal-assistance projects in Asia, becoming the first Asian donor to offer bilateral assistance in the legal field in the post-Cold War profileration of rule-of-law assistance movements. This paper reviews the process of re-shaping the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) policies in Japan leading up to the adoption of the ODA Charter in 1992 and its subsequent amendments which underlie the changes in importance and relevancy of legal assistance in the overall Japanese foreign-aid policy over the years. The paper also argues that Japan’s rule-of-law assistance projects were initially launched with pragmatic considerations but had to be continuously justified for their sustainability with increasingly sophisticated philosophical foundations and practical responses to respond to the changing trends of international co-operation and national political pressures.

This paper suggests that Afghanistan’s fractured plural legal system is beginning to show some signs of cohesion and coherence. I briefly describe the aspiration set out in the Constitution of Afghanistan and its mandate to legislators and jurists to harmonize Islamic jurisprudence, the principles of justice, customary norms, and international treaty obligations. I then discuss some of the setbacks, obstacles, and more recent progress that have shaped the journey towards that aspiration. The paper specifically addresses the role of lawyers as they learn to navigate the more coherent landscape and the development and impact of a nascent adversarial system. Finally, the paper addresses the role of customary dispute resolution and the bifurcated legal-education system, and their impact on the development of a more unified legal system.

This paper provides a critical account of the various roles that labour-law regulation has played in China’s transition to a market-oriented economy. The analysis aims to contribute new insights to an ongoing debate on the relationship between economic development and legal rules and institutions in China. Discussions of social and labour rights have been on the periphery of a debate that has focused on property and contract rights (the so-called “Rights Hypothesis”). While numerous scholars have sought to debunk the explanatory power of the “Rights Hypothesis” in the case of China, I put forward an alternative “Social Rights Hypothesis.” My proposed hypothesis seeks to explain how labour-law rules and institutions have co-evolved with the emergence of a labour market in China’s economic development. Specifically, labour law has played not only a market-constituting role, but also market-corrective and market-limiting functions.

It is widely accepted that law is essential for economic growth. Prominent economists in China have repeatedly called for strengthening the legal system so that the economy can continue to grow. Nevertheless, the fact that China has been able to achieve rapid economic growth while the law is weak seems to cast doubt on the significance of law. It is even suggested that China is a counter-example to the importance of law and, more provocatively, it is argued that China’s economy grew rapidly not “in spite of,” but “because of,” weak law. To gain a richer and deeper understanding of law in China’s economic growth, this paper conducts a case-study of China’s stock market by examining its growth history and legal development. It is found that China has built from scratch a complex legal and regulatory system governing the stock market, which actually played a critical role in supporting the growth of the market. However, the trajectory of development was law following market growth, which was in turn caused by ideological and political liberalization. On the other hand, the market did not grow to its full potential and currently it faces serious challenges to fulfil the task of supporting the development of the economy, and the fundamental reason is political and ideological restrictions; likewise, the improvement of law for investor protection has not been sustained, for which similarly politics and ideologies offer an explanation. The experience of the stock market suggests that, while law is indispensable for sustaining China’s economic growth, political and ideological liberalization is fundamental in that it is not only necessary to free up the economy so that it can continue to grow in the first place, but also crucial to further strengthening the whole legal system.

This article focuses on the war on drugs in the Philippines in order to explore issues related to extra-judicial killing, which remains common in many countries that have abolished the death penalty and in many more that retain it but seldom carry out judicial executions. In the first year of Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency (2016–17), thousands of people were killed by police or by vigilantes who were encouraged to prosecute his war on drugs. At a time when democracy is in retreat in many parts of the world, this case illustrates how popular harsh punishment can be in states that have failed to meet their citizens’ hopes for freedom, economic growth, and security.

The concept of restorative justice emerged from efforts to find an alternative to the traditional punitive, retributive reaction to crime. The belief that face-to-face meetings are able to address the diverse needs of all involved parties has eventuated in the proposal of an informal process to discuss the aftermath of crime. One local district court in Korea was very keen to test this process and conducted a project to examine the applicability of restorative justice in Korean criminal trials. Investigating the processes and outcomes of this project, this study identifies challenges in officially adopting such a programme in Korea. In particular, this study raises questions regarding what form of justice Korean citizens truly desire.

The general, but false, perception of migrant smuggling through Indonesia, a large, archipelagic country, is that smugglers operate entirely on their own. In fact, the more complex smuggling operations rely on broad networks of foreign organizers as well as local intermediaries and ground staff. In 2011, the Indonesian legislature introduced a severe minimum sentence for any involvement in migrant smuggling with the expectation that the judiciary would apply the sentence in all future cases. However, some judges proceeded to hand down sentences below the statutory minimum, arguing that the punishment is not commensurate to the relatively minor roles played by locals. This article examines how judges at all levels of the judiciary did so in ten related cases. In conclusion, it argues that statutory sentences are not mandatory in Indonesia and that, by applying below-minimum sentences, judges not only maintain judicial independence; they also effectively exercise a judicial review function.

The mediation of disputes by community leaders in China has deep historical roots and has long been among the responsibilities of neighbourhoods and villages. While most research on the topic has looked at cities, mediation is in fact more common in the countryside. This paper draws on a survey conducted in 2002 (n=2,164) and repeated in 2010 (n=2,659), covering 23 villages in five provinces, which provides detailed data on conflict from disputants themselves. We examine the evolution of this much-debated mode of conflict resolution and assess its prevalence and effectiveness relative to alternatives. We find that, even as overall rates of disputing declined, seeking intervention by village authorities remained as common a response to disputes in 2010 as it was eight years prior. The paper thus sheds light on a primary means through which the party-state has tried to maintain stability, tamp down strife, and assert its primacy at the community level.

This article addresses the dilemmas and compromises in legal practice around the issue of child marriage in Indonesia. Although the government set development goals that include ending child marriage and complying with human rights standard, it is facing considerable resistance. We researched the state legal system and law in practice to understand this resistance, finding that: (1) law-making in family law involves conflict between progressive and conservative ideas; (2) consequently there is friction within current family law and laws regarding human rights; (3) judges use their discretion to achieve compromises between state laws and local norms; and (4) state law is creatively interpreted and applied at village level. The resistance at all these levels, arising from the religious concerns of conservative Muslims in a rapidly modernizing Indonesian society, is a formidable obstacle for the government to achieve its development goals. Adolescent sexuality is at the heart of these tensions.