Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Announcing Publication of the Article: Crafting a Theory of Socialist Democracy For China in the 21st Century: Considering Hu Angang’s (胡鞍钢) Theory of Collective Presidency in the Context of the Emerging Chinese Constitutional State



(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2015)


I am pleased to mention the publication of my article, Crafting a Theory of Socialist Democracy For China in the 21st Century: Considering Hu Angang’s (胡鞍钢) Theory of Collective Presidency in the Context of the Emerging Chinese Constitutional State, which appears in the current issue (Vol 16(1) pp. 29-82) of the Asia-Pacific Law and Policy Journal. My thanks to the Journal's co-editors in chief--Garrett I. Halydier and Joshua J. Michaels, and the journal staff.  It considers the possibility, within the Chinese constitutional context, of embedding notions of democracy and and representation within government rather than principally through the exercise of voting for a representative to government.

Links to the articles in Vol 16(1) along with the editor's note follows. The article is available on line here.


Volume 16, Issue 1

Editor’s Note – Volume 16, Issue 1
Articles

Rebecca Wolozin, Citizenship Issues and Issuing Citizenship: A Case Study of Sri Lanka’s Citizenship Laws in a Global Context

Larry Catá Backer, Crafting a Theory of Socialist Democracy For China in the 21st Century: Considering Hu Angang’s (胡鞍钢) Theory of Collective Presidency in the Context of the Emerging Chinese Constitutional State

Megumi Honami, How Successful is Japan’s Labor Tribunal System?: The Labor Tribunal’s Limited Scope and Effectiveness

Jeffrey K. L. Lee, Mediation in Mainland China and Hong Kong: Can They Learn from Each Other?

Yuki Arai, Is Japan Ready to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage?

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Editor’s Note – Volume 16, Issue 1 

The editors of the Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal (“APLPJ”) are proud to present our Fall 2014 issue (Volume 16, Issue 1). In this issue, we feature five distinct articles that examine an array of significant, controversial legal matters in Japan, China, and Sri Lanka.

To start off, we present the problem of citizenship rights in the article, Citizenship Issues and Issuing Citizenship in Sri Lanka: A Case Study of Sri Lanka’s Citizenship Laws in a Global Context. Rebecca Wolozin, Harvard Law School 2015 J.D. Candidate, introduces the importance of legal identification, and how the absence of the right to nationality exposes the occurrences of human rights abuses and severe discrimination without any interference from a state. She then analyzes Sri Lanka’s citizenship laws to illustrate key issues in international citizenship laws.

Next, we present Crafting a Theory of Socialist Democracy For China in the 21st Century: Considering Hu Angang’s (胡鞍钢) Theory of Collective Presidency in the Context of the Emerging Chinese Constitutional State, by Larry Catá Backer. Exploring the different forms of democracy, Mr. Backer explains that China is engaged in developing a new model for exercising democratic constitutionalism. He then introduces Hu Angang’s theory of collective presidency, a type of socialist democracy that emphasizes the mechanics and integrity of the collective government as the maker of democratic legitimacy.

We next present an article by Megumi Honami, William S. Richardson School of Law, 2015 J.D. Candidate. Her article, How Successful is Japan’s Labor Tribunal System?: The Labor Tribunal’s Limited Scope and Effectiveness, highlights the administrative and judicial mechanisms for individual labor dispute resolutions, and assesses a judicial mechanism that was established in 2006, the Labor Tribunal System. Ms. Honami argues that the Labor Tribunal System is successful in resolving specific categories of labor disputes, and that the system should be utilized to supplement other administrative mechanisms to achieve effective dispute resolutions.

We continue the discussion about alternative dispute resolution in our next article, Mediation in Mainland China and Hong Kong: Can TheyLearn from Each Other? Jeffrey K. L. Lee, University of Hong Kong J.D. Candidate, presents a detailed background of the existing mediation systems in Mainland China and Hong Kong. After examining the problems of each mediation system, Mr. Lee suggests that China and Hong Kong can improve their mediation systems by borrowing each other’s practices.

Our last article discusses legalizing same-sex marriage in Japan. In Is Japan Ready to Legalize Same-sex Marriage?, Yuki Arai provides a native Japanese perspective on this controversial legal issue. Currently Japan does not have a legal system to formalize same-sex marriages. Ms. Arai compares the progression of same sex marriage in Netherlands, ngland, and Japan, and explains that Japan will face more complications in legalizing same-sex marriage. However, the author embraces the possibility of legal recognition of same-sex marriage due to the introduction of registered partnerships.

Finally, the Asia-Pacific Law & Policy Journal is pleased to announce that we will be launching a new and greatly improved website in the coming semester. The Journal will also be hosting a symposium at the University of Hawai’i addressing military issues across the specific. Stay tuned for more details.

As always, we wish to thank the APLPJ editors who worked so hard this semester to edit these incredible articles. In addition, we wish to thank our authors for working so graciously with us as we sought to bring this issue to fruition. Finally, we wish to thank our advisors, WSRSL Professors Mark Levin, Ronald Brown, Larry Foster, and Melody MacKenzie for their insight and support.

Garrett I. Halydier
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Joshua J. Michaels
Co-Editor-in-Chief


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