Asia Pacific Judiciaries

Explores judicial independence, integrity and impartiality in Asia-Pacific countries.

First comparative study of women judges in the Asia-Pacific based on empirical socio-legal research.

This book brings together in one volume critical reflections on the experience of judicial reform in countries around the region, including India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It focuses on practical reform experience, rather than theory and aims to identify strengths and weaknesses of various reform programmes and help in the development of good practices based on the lessons learnt. The topics covered include implementation of judicial reform initiatives, promoting access to justice, ethics and accountability, judicial education and skills development, and case management. The contributors to the volume are senior judges, court administrators, lawyers, scholars and representatives of civil society from across the region who have first hand experience of various reform programmes. One of the major and most unambiguous contentions of the volume is that the judiciary itself must play a pro-active role if judicial reform is to be achieved and the goal of economic growth is to be integrated with justice for all.

This book examines the numerous new courts created throughout Asia during the last 20 years, covering important jurisdictions including human rights, intellectual property disputes, bankruptcy petitions, commercial contracts, public law adjudication, personal law, labour and industrial disputes. It evaluates their performances, and considers the broader economic, social and political implications.

Environmental Courts and Tribunals in Asia-Pacificis an in-depth treatment of the features, best practices, challenges and future prospects for environmental courts and tribunals (ECTs) in the Asia-Pacific region. ECTs play an important role in improving environmental dispute resolution, access to environmental justice and environmental governance, but data and academic analysis on ECTs are very limited. This book fills that gap, with ten chapters authored by leading academics, judges and lawyers from multiple jurisdictions, including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka, as well as pan-Asia-Pacific and global perspectives

This manuscript is a collection of essays on various issues in Asia-Pacific legal systems. It has been written within the framework of comparative legal research; thus, chapters address various of the ASEAN nations, as well as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The topics in this comprehensive volume, which offer Canadian perspectives on contemporary Asian law, include securities, prostitution, environmental, and constitutional law.

The purpose of this book is to provide a consolidated collection of materials to facilitate comparison of the various national human rights institutions (NHRIs) already established in the Asia-Pacific region, against a background of selected international materials and with the assistance of several comparative tables. The latter are not intended to be exhaustive, but are designed to assist in identifying and considering the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the legislative mandates of each national institution. While the collection is primarily intended for teaching purposes, it should also be useful to countries considering establishing a national human rights commission or, for those which have already done so, strengthening its mandate. For this reason several sections have been included outlining the relationship which should exist between NHRIs, the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary and other related institutions and a short section on the importance of the process which should precede their establishment.

Constitutional Statecraft in Asian Courts explores how courts engage in constitutional state-building in aspiring, yet deeply fragile, democracies in Asia. Yvonne Tew offers an in-depth look at contemporary Malaysia and Singapore, explaining how courts protect and construct constitutionalism even as they confront dominant political parties and negotiate democratic transitions. This richly illustrative account offers at once an engaging analysis of Southeast Asia's constitutional context, as well as a broader narrative that should resonate in many countries across Asia that are also grappling with similar challenges of colonial legacies, histories of authoritarian rule, and societies polarized by race, religion, and identity. The book explores the judicial strategies used for statecraft in Asian courts, including an analysis of the specific mechanisms that courts can use to entrench constitutional basic structures and to protect rights in a manner that is purposive and proportionate. Tew's account shows how courts in Asia's emerging democracies can chart a path forward to help safeguard a nation's constitutional core and to build an enduring constitutional framework.

Analyzes courts in fourteen selected Asian jurisdictions to provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive interdisciplinary book available.