Rule of Law in East Asian Context, March 18-19, 2017
1. Theme Statement
Although ‘the rule of law’ has long been a key theme in political philosophy, there is little agreement in the era of globalization about what exactly constitutes the rule of law, why do people obey laws, and to what extent laws can constrain politics. In contemporary Western societies, traditional understandings of the rule of law are facing a number of challenges. The rule of law is frequently equivocated with the rule by law in which the instrumentality of legal actions overwhelms the normativity of legal obligations, and ideas of legal pluralism tackle the conventional boundaries of a sovereign nation. In East Asian countries, debates on Confucian constitutionalism redirect the question of the rule of law in Asian political and legal institutions. A set of Confucian rituals are reinterpreted as an imperative bridge that fills the simple split between the rule of law and the rule by man, and major Confucian values are suggested as an alternative to liberal constitutionalism whose impulse to impose the Western laws in different cultures provokes a widespread opposition.
Based on these observations, we organize this conference to examine the issue at stake from a Northeast Asian perspective. This region is undergoing rapid development that is generating a range of important socio-political changes. Many countries, from China to South Korea and Japan, have become distinctively more individualistic, forgoing old communal values for the type of individualistic behavior that is more pervasive in the Western legal tradition. Confucian values as well as traditional legal notions are not so much in accord with the dramatic change of socioeconomic activities, and formerly very homogenous nations in the region are now hosting increasingly large immigrant communities. Confucian ideals are not self-implementing these days, especially ideals that aim for a better relationship between the virtue of men and the institutions of laws. Several governments, including South Korea and Japan, have now started to promote an institutional transformation in which the compatibility of Western legal measures with traditional legal norms is precariously justified.
Nevertheless, our engagement with intercultural dialogues on the issue should avoid a hasty judgement over the current socio-political changes. We can hardly single out a cogent fusion out of some institutional adaptations in Northeast Asia that have been mediated with different languages and different historical contexts. Not a ‘Golden Rule’ can be applicable virtually to all societies in Northeast Asia, and this axiomatic reality is exposed relentlessly even in the shared conception of Confucianism across cultures. Certainly, our comparative political research should not undermine the normative thrust of intellectual exchange in our collaboration to learn other cultures for the sake of understanding ourselves. However, our comparative political philosophy should not aim to create a general theory across cultures without taking account of historically marginalized localities.
While this conference will investigate a range of different vantage points, we explore, in broad terms, the importance of the rule of law in meeting these challenges. Our approach to the rule of law eschews an essentialist notion of community, be it based on the idea of unique ‘Asian Values’ or on a utopian cosmopolitanism that is so categorical that it fails to incorporate traditional legal norms into multicultural coexistence. Instead, we purse a value-formative deliberation through which we can share our particular views on the rule of law beyond the constraints of our localities.
In particular, we aim to address three broad questions on the rule of law:
1) Theoretical Question: What are the normative foundations of the rule of law in general? What are the distinct legal norms in Northeast Asia? How do they differ from those in liberal democratic societies in the West? Does the individual conception of legal rights have a source of political legitimacy, and if yes, in what sense?
2) Empirical Question: How are these distinct sources of legal norms in Northeast Asia shaped, altered, and supplemented by sociopolitical transformations induced by rapid economic development, growing immigrant communities, and the globally spreading wave of democratization? For example, how do local deliberations over political accountability facilitate the development of Confucian constitutionalism in Northeast Asian countries?
3) Normative Question: How inherited cultural practices and local sociopolitical experiences in Northeast Asia might contribute to the development of more inclusive forms of the rule of law in multicultural times?
We will survey the latest theoretical contributions to the studies of the rule of law and the latest understandings of why governments do or do not act according to laws. At the same time, we will investigate whether non-Western legal practices can provide us with a more appropriate form of legal legitimacy as well as political accountability.
2. Conference Organization
The main outcome of this conference is an edited book on “The Rule of Law in Northeast Asian Context” to be published by the Routledge Series of Political Theories in an East Asian Context.
A key part of this book project is a conference, held at Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai) in March 2017. The main aim of the workshop is to discuss drafts of chapters so that they can then be improved and coordinated in view of producing an overall book that meets the high quality necessary for the Routledge Series.
1) Steering Committee (Committee Chair: Jun-Hyeok KWAK)
Jun-Hyeok KWAK, Professor, Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), SYSU, China.
Jianhong CHEN, Professor, Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), SYSU, China.
Demin DUAN, Associate Professor, Department of Government, Peking University, China.
Tim Beaumont, Research Associate, Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), SYSU, China.
Koichiro MATSUDA, Professor, Department of Law, Rikkyo University, Japan.
Jang Jip CHOI, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, Korea University, Korea.
2) Format and Timeline
The four sessions of the conference will take place over two days. Nine papers distributed in advance will be presented at each session, and round-table discussions will be followed by written commentaries.
Day One
1) First Session (Theoretical Arguments): Adreas Kalyvas (The New School), Elton CHAN (Yale-NUS College), Rui HAN (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies)
2) Second Session (Contextual Appropriations): Koichiro MASTUDA(Rikkyo University), Kuo-hsing HSIEH (National Chung Cheng University), Chunlin LIU (Chang Jung Christian University)
3) Third Session (Empirical Questions): Norikazu KAWAGISHI (Waseda University), Demin DUAN (Peking University), Hak-Jae KIM (Seoul National University).
Day Two
1) Fourth Session: Editorial Meeting for the Book Project
We anticipate that the each of contributors will submit their conference paper proposals by the end of January in 2016, and the conference papers will be submitted by the end of February in 2017. Commentators should submit their written commentaries one week before the conference. After the workshop, we intend to publish the papers as the 9th volume of the Routledge Series of Political Theories in East Asian Context. For the book proposal, we will request all contributors to submit their final versions by the end of September in 2017. If accepted, our book will be published by the second half of 2018.
* Contributors not in the Schedule: Richard Bellamy (University College London), Chaihark HAHM (Yonsei University), and Shin CHIBA (International Christian University, Japan).
3. Conference Schedule
* Conference Day, March 18 [English]
I. Opening Ceremony (9:00-9:30 AM)
Jianhong CHEN, Department Chair & Professor, Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), SYSU
Jun-Hyeok KWAK, Professor, Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), SYUS & General Editor of the Routledge Series of Political Theories in East Asian Context
II. Session One: The Rule of Law at Stake (9:40-11:40 AM)
* Moderator
Jun-Hyeok KWAK, General Editor of the Series & Professor of Philosophy (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University
* Papers
Andreas Kalyvas (Associate Professor and Chair of Politics, The New School)
“Constitutional Rule of Law: Popular Sovereignty, Resistance, and Constituent Power”
Elton CHAN (Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale-NUS College)
“Confucianization or toleration – a case for reconciling Confucianism with Rule of Law”
* Discussants
Ethan Putterman (Associate Professor of Political Science, National University of Singapore)
Mario Wenning (Associate Professor of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau)
III. Lunch Break (12:00-13:00 PM)
IV. Session Two: Contextual Appropriations (13:20-15:20 PM)
* Moderator
Qiang LI (Professor of Government, Peking University)
* Papers
Koichiro MATSUDA (Professor of Law, Rikkyo University)
“Embedding Hochi (Rule of Law) and Jichi (Self-government) in East Asia: Pre-War Japanese Intellectuals and Their Perspective on Asian Legal Cultures”
Rui HAN (Associate Professor of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies)
“Is the Idea of Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics Possible?”
Discussants
Pao-Shen HO (Research Fellow of Philosophy (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University)
Luis Cordeiro Rodrigues (Research Fellow of Philosophy (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University
V. Session Three: Experimental Questions (15:40-17:40 PM)
* Moderator
Jianhong CHEN, Department Chair & Professor of Philosophy (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University
* Papers
Norikazu KAWAGISHI (Professor of Law, Waseda University)
“Constitutional Change and the Transformation of Politics”
Demin DUAN (Associate Professor, Department of Government, Peking University)
“Searching for Basic of Rule of Law beyond Human Rights Discourses”
Hak-Jae KIM (HK Assistant Professor, Seoul National University)
“The Recent South Korean Political Scandals from the Perspective of the Rule of Law”
*Discussants
Hugo El Kholi (Research Fellow of Philosophy (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University)
Tim Beaumont (Research Associate of Philosophy (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University).
VI. Dinner (18:00 PM)
* Conference Day 2, March 19 [English]
VII. Session Four: Round-Table for Book Proposal (10:00-11:40 PM)
* Moderator
Jun-Hyeok KWAK (General Editor of the Series & Professor of Philosophy (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University)
Ethan Putterman (Coeditor of this volume, Associate Professor of Political Science, National University of Singapore)
VIII. Lunch (12:00-13:00 PM)
