Report of the Routledge Series of Political Theories in East Asian Context International Symposium 2017
On March 18-19 the Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai) held the 2017 Routledge International Conference on the Rule of Law in an East Asian Context. The conference provided an opportunity for the contributors to Volume IX of the Routledge Series of Political Theories in an East Asian Context to meet to present their works-in-progress.
The first session of the conference was focused on Theoretical Questions. It featured two papers: one by Professor Andreas Kalyvas, on “Constitutional Rule of Law: Popular Sovereignty, Resistance, and Constitutive Power”, and another by Wing Ching Elton Chan, on “Confucianization or toleration – a case for reconciling Confucianism with the rule of law”. Responses were then provided by Professor Mario Wenning, and Professor Ethan Putterman, the editor of the volume.
The second session was focused on Contextual Appropriations and featured papers by Professor Rui Han, on the question “Is the rule of law with Chinese characteristics possible?”, and Professor Koichiro Matsuda, on “Embedding Hochi (Rule of Law) and Jichi (Self-Government) in East Asia: Pre-War Japanese Intellectuals and Their Perspective on Asian Legal Cultures”. Responses were then provided by Professor Mario Wenning and Dr Luis Rodrigues.
The third and final session focused on Experimental Questions and featured papers by Professor Norikazu Kawagishi on “Constitutional Change and the Transformation of Politics”, Professor Demin Duan on “Searching for Basic Rule of Law in Human Rights Discourses”, and Professor Hak-Jae Kim on “The Recent South Korean Political Scandals from the Perspective of the Rule of Law”. Responses were then provided by Dr Hugo El Kholi and Dr Tim Beaumont.
One set of topics which dominated the discussion was the nature of the rule of law, its relation to rule by law, and the distinction between moral and positive law. By extension the participants grappled with the question of the relationship between the rule of law, human rights, liberalism, and democracy in the region in the 21st century.
