New Book by Anya Adair & Andrew Rabin: Law, Literature, and Social Regulation in Early Medieval England (Boydell & Brewer, Boydell Press)

Law, Literature, and Social Regulation in Early Medieval England
Anya Adair & Andrew Rabin
Series: Anglo-Saxon Studies
Boydell & Brewer, Boydell Press

Copyright Date: 2023

288 pp.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2x4kpjc
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2x4kpjc

Book Description: Valuable new insights into the multi-layered and multi-directional relationship of law, literature, and social regulation in pre-Conquest English society. Pre-Conquest English law was among the most sophisticated in early medieval Europe. Composed largely in the vernacular, it played a crucial role in the evolution of early English identity and exercised a formative influence on the development of the Common Law. However, recent scholarship has also revealed the significant influence of these legal documents and ideas on other cultural domains, both modern and pre-modern. This collection explores the richness of pre-Conquest legal writing by looking beyond its traditional codified form. Drawing on methodologies ranging from traditional philology to legal and literary theory, and from a diverse selection of contributors offering a broad spectrum of disciplines, specialities and perspectives, the essays examine the intersection between traditional juridical texts - from law codes and charters to treatises and religious regulation - and a wide range of literary genres, including hagiography and heroic poetry. In doing so, they demonstrate that the boundary that has traditionally separated "law" from other modes of thought and writing is far more porous than hitherto realized. Overall, the volume yields valuable new insights into the multi-layered and multi-directional relationship of law, literature, and social regulation in pre-Conquest English society.

New Book by Angus Young & Kai-Uwe Seidenfuss: A Concise Guide to Corporate Compliance Management (2nd Edition)

"A Concise Guide to Corporate Compliance Management (2nd Edition)"
Dr Angus Young & Dr Kai-Uwe Seidenfuss
Wolters Kluwer (HK) (formerly CCH)
Published in March 2023
228 pp.

Book Description: Compliance is more than operating within the boundaries of the law and regulations. It epitomizes the norms and the integrity of an organization, and it contributes to good business results. Rather than just knowing and following the respective requirements, compliance management covers a wide range of areas.

      Moreover, effective compliance does require professionals who understand regulatory obligations, who listen to the business, including but not limited to skilful educators, counsellors, governance professionals, accountants, and facilitators.

     While the first edition outlined the key concepts of compliance and looked at the area from serval perspectives, this second edition also covers new topics including: New ISO standards on compliance management systems; Practitioners’ perspectives and selective discussions on regulators in financial services sector; and Discussions on the Three Line Model as well as leadership and impacts of the use of technology in compliance.

       The updated edition is meant to be practical and structured to support the reader, with insights for those already in the profession and for those thinking of entering the field. 

New Book by Sida Liu et al: The Asian Law and Society Reader (Cambridge University Press)

The Asian Law and Society Reader
Lynette J. Chua, David M. Engel, and Sida Liu
Cambridge University Press
Published in March 2023
400 pp.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108864824

Book Description: The first reader on Asian law and society scholarship, this book features reading selections from a wide range of Asian countries – East, South, Southeast and Central Asia – along with original commentaries by the three editors on the theoretical debates and research methods pertinent to the discipline. Organized by themes and topical areas, the reader enables scholars and students to break out of country-specific silos to make theoretical connections across national borders. It meets a growing demand for law and society materials in institutions and universities in Asia and around the world. It is written at a level accessible to advanced undergraduate students and graduate students as well as experienced researchers, and serves as a valuable teaching tool for courses focused on Asian law and society in law schools, area studies, history, religion, and social science fields such as sociology, anthropology, politics, government, and criminal justice.

Reviews: 

‘This is just the volume that sociolegal scholars have been waiting for! The Asian Law and Society Reader is an elegantly organized, comprehensive, and accessible text, analyzing contemporary substantive topics within enduring legacies of colonialism and rapid legal and social transformation. The text illuminates the significance of this innovative and rich body of research for all law and society scholars today - wherever one works in the world.’

Eve Darian-Smith - Professor and Chair of Global and International Studies, University of California, Irvine, and coeditor of the Routledge Handbook of Law and Society (2021)

‘This book is a treasure trove of law and society research, spanning a massive diversity of societies and an equally broad array of issues. There is no scholar of the region who will fail to learn from it, and it will be of great use for teaching and research.’

Tom Ginsburg - Leo Spitz Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, and Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

‘This intelligently curated collection brings together a new generation of Asian law and society research. It is exactly the right starting point for getting up to speed on the diversity of the field, or for anyone who wants to learn more about Asian politics and society through the lens of law.’

Rachel Stern - Professor of Law and Political Science and Pamela P. Fong and Family Distinguished Chair in China Studies, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley

‘In the twenty-first century, Asia will surely become another center for law and society scholarship. The inherent diversity of Asia will be further developed and conducive to future-oriented institutional experiments and knowledge innovation. From this point of view, the publication of The Asian Law and Society Reader is of great significance. I believe that it is the best introductory guide for Asian law and society research at this stage, and is also an indispensable reference for carrying out law and society education in Asian countries.’

Weidong Ji - University Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and President, China Institute for Socio-Legal Studies

‘This book examines the meaning and action of law in diverse Asian societies through a detailed examination of a wide range of issues. Readers will gain in-depth knowledge of various topics and will be able to read the universal significance of law and society studies in Asia.’

Yoshitaka Wada - Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Waseda University, Tokyo

‘Grounded in rich empirical research, this volume extends the epistemological and methodological imagination of law and society. Intellectual conversations between empirical essays and insightful commentary reveal intellectual journeys of scholars and the field itself, achieving both a bird’s-eye view of the field and insights into the lives of ordinary people as they negotiate socio-legal realities on the ground.’

Yukiko Koga - Associate Professor of Anthropology, Yale University

New Book in translation by Paul KC Chung Professor Scott Veitch in Jurisprudence et al: Jurisprudence: Themes and Concepts (3rd Ed., Peking U Press)

Jurisprudence: Themes and Concepts (3rd edition) by Professor Scott Veitch, Paul KC Chung Professor in Jurisprudence, and Emilios Christodoulidis and Marco Goldoni (of the University of Glasgow) has just been published in translation by Peking University Press in January 2023. The translator introduces the book in a recent issue of the Shanghai Review of Books.

To view the book, please click here. 

Podcast on Anna Dziedzic's Foreign Judges in the Pacific: hosted by Jane Richards (RPg)

Podcast on 

Anna Dziedzic's Foreign Judges in the Pacific  (Hart Publishing 2021)

November 25, 2022

Description: While it might ordinarily be assumed that judges who sit on constitutional courts will be local citizens, in the islands of the Pacific, more than three-quarters of judges are foreign. This is book about that unique phenomenon, but a phenomenon that has global implications. Foreign Judges in the Pacific (Hart, 2021) is a comprehensive study which brings together original empirical research, together with legal analysis and constitutional theory, and traces the impact and influence of foreign judging on nine states Pacific states: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

     Dr Anna Dziedzic's study is a cutting-edge and pertinent contribution to constitutional law and jurisprudence. This work brings unique analysis of concepts such as cultural understanding, transnational knowledge sharing, and the importance of nationality in the task of judging. What really drew me to the book and kept me engaged in the work was not just the depth and richness of the study, but that practice of foreign judging in these under-studied Pacific does matter, and has broad lessons for all scholars, policy makers and lawyers who practice and research in all areas of constitutional law. There is a lot to be learnt from this study, and the quality of its analysis will arguably be found to be without parallel.

Interviewee: 

Dr Anna Dziedzic is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law at Melbourne Law School. She researches comparative constitutional law and judicial studies, with a particular focus on the Pacific region.

Host: 

Jane Richards is a doctoral student at the University of Hong Kong. You can find her on twitter where she follows all things related to human rights and Hong Kong politics @JaneRichardsHK

Shiling Xiao (RPg) on Judicial Review and Standards of Review in Macao (new book chapter)

"Judicial Review and Standards of Review in Macao"

Shiling Xiao (RPg)

in Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law in Greater China, ed. by Ngoc Son Bui, Stuart Hargreaves, and Ryan Mitchell (Routledge, Dec 29 2022), Chapter 11, pp. 169-184

Abstract: This chapter examines the judicial review mechanisms of the Macau special administrative regions and the judicial review practice of the Court of Final Appeal of Macau in the last two decades after the handover. In the era of colonial Macau, there were mechanisms of constitutional review. The courts could either appeal to the constitutional court in Lisbon or reject to apply the laws they consider unconstitutional and invalid. The Fundamental Law on Judicial Organisation, a new law on the judicial organisation of the Macau SAR, came into force on that day China resumed its sovereignty over Macau. Due to the influence of the Portuguese centralised model of administrative review, Macau established a specific administrative tribunal, the Administrative Tribunal, which is specialised in litigation in relation to administrative, tax and customs duties matters. The Administrative Tribunal enjoys common and residual jurisdiction at first instance over administrative disputes.

Pui-yin Lo on Involving and Integrating ‘Capitalist’ Special Administrative Regions in ‘Socialist’ National Development of China (new book chapter)

"Involving and Integrating ‘Capitalist’ Special Administrative Regions in ‘Socialist’ National Development of China"

Pui-yin Lo

in Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law in Greater China, ed. by Ngoc Son Bui, Stuart Hargreaves, and Ryan Mitchell (Routledge, Dec 29 2022), Chapter 15, pp. 236-250

Abstract: This chapter considers the tensions and flexibility in the implementation of the basic policies of the People's Republic of China (PRC) regarding Hong Kong and Macao of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, whereby, upon resumption of exercise of Chinese sovereignty over these territories, the PRC was to establish Special Administrative Regions of separate systems to maintain the territories as ‘capitalist’ economically and socially. National reunification was on the agenda of the Communist Party of China when it emerged from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, began to chart a course for modernization of China and achieved normalized relations with Japan and the United States. The CPC leadership decided in March 1981 to recover Hong Kong from the United Kingdom and to adopt Deng Xiaoping's approach of the PRC, which practises the socialist system, allowing Hong Kong to continue to practise its capitalist system. The PRC's State Authorities, in the meantime, prepared the mechanism for the administration of the reunified territories.

Albert Chen on The History of the Drafting and Implementation of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (new book chapter)

"The History of the Drafting and Implementation of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region"

Albert Chen
in Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law in Greater China, ed. by Ngoc Son Bui, Stuart Hargreaves, and Ryan Mitchell (Routledge, Dec 29 2022), Chapter 3, pp. 34-48

Abstract: The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was established in 1997 upon the termination of British colonial rule in Hong Kong. The Basic Law of the HKSAR is the constitutional instrument of post-colonial Hong Kong. This chapter discusses the history of the drafting and implementation of the Basic Law. The Chinese government never recognised publicly that the British or the colonial Hong Kong government had any role to play in the drafting of the Basic Law. The Chinese government considered the making of the Basic Law a purely domestic affair of the PRC. The political elite and public opinion in Hong Kong had divided views on certain fundamental issues arising from the drafting of the Basic Law, particularly as regards the degree of Hong Kong's democratisation that should be codified in the Basic Law.

Han Zhu on Rights Movement, Civil Disobedience and Civil Unrest (new book chapter)

"Rights Movement, Civil Disobedience and Civil Unrest"
Han Zhu
in Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law in Greater China, ed. by Ngoc Son Bui, Stuart Hargreaves, and Ryan Mitchell (Routledge, Dec 29 2022), Chapter 13, pp. 204-220

Abstract: This chapter aims to explore how the differences in constitutional systems have shaped social movements in the three regions by applying the mainstream social movement theory—the political opportunity and process theory—to the field of constitutional law. According to the political opportunity theory, the structure of political opportunities embedded in a society may have a significant impact on a social movement's development by inspiring or discouraging movement mobilization. Social movements in post-1989 China are characterised by Rights movements, which refer to a wide variety of actions by citizens to defend their civil or political rights through legal activism or other mobilisation tactics. The changing structure of legal opportunities inspired the emergence of weiquan movements, along with various resistance movements, in the mid-1990s. Weiquan activism was initiated by common citizens in both urban and rural areas.