Albert Chen et al : Constitutional Politics in Asia (Oxford Bibliographies)

Constitutional Politics in Asia
Kevin Y.L. Tan, P.Y. Lo, Albert H.Y. Chen
Oxford Bibliographies 
Last Modified: 12 January 2023

DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199756223-0354

Introduction: The term “constitutional politics” is used far more often than it is defined. Many writers who use the term do not bother defining it, presuming its meaning to be self-evident. Thus, “constitutional politics” is not a term of art and has been used to describe various political or legal phenomena. Broadly speaking, “constitutional politics” may be used to refer to events or developments in which constitutional law interacts with, provides a setting for, or to some extent shapes political processes. In a sense, it deals with that intersection between constitutional law and politics in issues that are neither wholly legal nor political but a mix of both. Plainly, this may manifest when a country drafts its own constitution or undergoes profound changes in its constitutional arrangement. It also arises if political questions are contested in the courts, or where the judiciary takes on a particularly active role in determining constitutional questions of the day, or where a particularly contested constitutional change or amendment takes place. The nature of constitutional law and constitutional adjudication is such that it is impossible to make a clear distinction between law and politics when discussing constitutional law. Key political actions, decisions, and bargains are often enshrined in constitutions and contestations as to their meanings and ambit, lending a heavy air of politics to judicial decision-making. Whether an issue is one that falls within the realm of “constitutional politics” depends on the context in which it arises. Take for example the appointment of judges. In many jurisdictions, this is an uncontroversial matter. However, in some other jurisdictions where the court is highly politicized and where the elected representatives hold power by a tenuous thread, such appointments invariably involve constitutional politics. Asia is the world’s largest continent both in terms of land mass and population. In this bibliography, we will attempt to examine and recommend the relevant literature pertaining primarily to the regions broadly described as Northeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Jurisdictions surveyed include: China, Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Timor Leste, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. We are fortunate that in recent decades, academia and academic publishers have taken a keen interest in constitutional law and politics in Asian countries, as demonstrated by the publication of several series of books such as Routledge Law in Asia (Routledge), Constitutionalism in Asia (Hart Publishing), Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy (Cambridge University Press), and Constitutional Systems of the World (Hart Publishing). It is possible to discuss constitutional politics in Asia in several ways. One possibility is to take a geographical country-by-country or region-by-region approach. Another is to do so on the basis of constitutional regime types such as democracies, socialist states, monarchies, and hybrid regimes. A further way is by grouping countries according to legal traditions. Having considered these possibilities, we felt it most logical to organize the bibliography along thematic or topical lines. This will make it easier for readers to use the bibliography and head straight for the topics that most interest them. We begin by looking at some general works dealing with the subject in the first two sections. The subsequent sections of the bibliography are organized thematically.

Overview of Individual Jurisdictions: The Constitutional Systems of the World series, published by Hart Publishing (Series General Editors: Peter Leyland, Andrew Harding, Benjamin L Berger, Rosalind Dixon, and Heinz Klug), is a series of introductory books featuring monographs of individual jurisdictions with accounts of how the constitutions are developed, interpreted, and utilized in their specific contexts. The studies on Asian jurisdictions deal with the constitution-making processes as well as the most important constitutional and political contests in each of these jurisdictions within their introductory chapters. These books are a good place to start for anyone hoping to know and understand the nature of constitutional politics in these countries. The Asian jurisdictions presented in this series of books include Central Asian States (Newton 2017), China (Zhang 2012), India (Thiruvengadam 2017), Indonesia (Butt and Lindsey 2012), Japan (Matsui 2010), Malaysia (Lee 2017, cited under Separation of Powers, Executive Power, and Inter-Branch Conflicts in Asian Jurisdictions), Myanmar (Crouch 2019), Pakistan (Aziz 2018), Singapore (Tan 2015); Taiwan (Yeh 2016), and Thailand (Harding and Leyland 2011).

Simon Young on Money Laundering in International Law (Oxford Bibliographies)

"Money Laundering in International Law"
Simon Young
Oxford Bibliographies
Published on 27 October 2021

Introduction: The international law of money laundering is found in several United Nations (UN) crime suppression treaties, United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, and a body of soft law, some of which arguably has crystallized as customary norms. Beginning with the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Vienna Convention), states agreed to establish anti-money laundering (AML) measures in their domestic law for drug-related offenses. This was followed by AML measures against organized crime and corruption, respectively, in the 2000 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention), including its protocols and the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption (Merida Convention). The AML measures include the criminalization of money laundering, powers to freeze and confiscate the proceeds of crime, duties of the private sector to generate financial intelligence, the establishment of financial intelligence units (FIUs), and formal legal cooperation arrangements between states, necessary given the transnational dimension of money laundering. While AML originally covered only property derived from crime, its measures were extended to property used to finance or carry out crimes, most notably for terrorist acts and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Though countries concluded a treaty against terrorist financing in 1999, it was not until after the events of 11 September 2001 that anti-terrorism financing norms, as part of the panoply of AML measures, were diffused around the world by UNSC resolutions. International bodies, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), have prepared model laws to assist countries to incorporate AML measures. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), established in 1989 by the G7 industrialized nations, is the most important and influential body in setting detailed international standards on AML. Through replication of its norms and functions by regional bodies, the FATF’s soft law of AML measures has hardened into near universal domestic AML laws, adopted to signify the integrity of a country’s financial systems. European nations extensively adopted AML measures by treaties and directives, sometimes going beyond FATF recommendations. As AML measures have grown in number and global significance, critical literature has grown, questioning their effectiveness, whether their benefits outweigh their costs, and whether they are justified from the standpoint of principles of criminal liability and human rights law. For more criminological literature, readers may wish to consult the Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology article Money Laundering...

CL Lim Co-Authors Oxford Bibliography on International Investment Arbitration

"International Investment Arbitration"
CL Lim and Jean Ho
Oxford Bibliographies
April 2016

Introduction 

International investment arbitration is heterogeneous. At its core, it represents the settlement of international investment disputes between foreign investors and host States by arbitration. However, as there are different ways to institute arbitral proceedings, the structural and substantive aspects of international investment arbitration are colored by the mode of commencement of arbitration. An early iteration of international investment arbitration was the submission of investment claims to Mixed Claims Commissions. These had been established by a series of bilateral conventions concluded between the mid-1800s and the early 1900s in order to adjudicate disputes between the nationals of a party State to the convention and the other party State. The types of disputes that fell within the jurisdiction of a Commission were specified in the conventions and varied, depending upon which convention was invoked. This form of international investment arbitration never achieved great prominence because of the small number of investment claims heard but they were a useful source of early jurisprudence and the basic form has continued to be employed in various guises, most notably in the case of the subsequent Iran-US Claims Tribunal. In the early 21st century, however, the two dominant iterations of international investment arbitration are contractually based investment arbitration and treaty-based investment arbitration. In investment contract arbitration, the legal basis for the arbitration is an arbitration clause in a contract which is binding on all contracting parties. In investment treaty arbitration, however, the legal basis for arbitration is a binding offer in a treaty clause by a host State to arbitrate with all protected investors, which any protected investor is then free to accept or reject. For this reason, the latter has been referred to, sometimes derisively, as “arbitration without privity,” a phrase coined by Jan Paulsson. There is also a third category of consent to investment arbitration by acceptance of a unilateral offer of a State through domestic investment laws. Having said that, many investment treaties also record an agreement between the Contracting States to arbitrate disputes arising from the interpretation or application of the treaty. In sum, investment treaty arbitration encompasses investor-State arbitration, which may have a variety of legal bases, and also State-to-State arbitration... Click here to read the full bibliography.

New Book: Hong Kong Basic Law Bibliography, Second Edition (HKLJ Ltd)

Hong Kong Basic Law Bibliography, 2nd Edition

Editors: Simon Young and Po Jen Yap

Hong Kong Law Journal Ltd

March 2016, 330 pp

When first published in 2006, The Hong Kong Basic Law Bibliography was the first full-length bibliography devoted to the literature surrounding the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s constitution, following the resumption of Chinese sovereignty in 1997.  It remains the only bibliography of its kind.  The second edition adds another 100 pages to the length of the first edition.  It continues to capture local and international, English and Chinese sources, and provides reference call numbers for those items found in Hong Kong’s public and university libraries. It also includes a selected bibliography on Macau’s Basic Law. It is a valuable research companion for students, teachers, practitioners, government officials, and scholars researching on Hong Kong’s Basic Law.  The book is a research output of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law.  Click here for ordering information.