This panel brings together a selection of chapters from the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Constitutional Law in Asia, which covers East Asia, Southeast Asia, and much of South Asia from a regional and interdisciplinary perspective.
Constitutionalism and Development in Asian Hybrid Regime
This chapter highlights the practice of constitutionalism in hybrid regimes. In the contemporary world, constitutionalism is practiced by not only democratic countries but also authoritarian states for the sake of economic development. This chapter addresses the following questions: First, why would authoritarian regimes accept the idea of constitutionalism and legality? Second, what makes authoritarian constitutionalismfunctional...
Economic and Social Rights in Asia
Socio-economic rights have been increasingly recognized in constitutions and jurisprudence across the world. South-East Asia represents, however, a partial outlier in this development. The region is only outmatched by the Arab States in its reluctance to recognize socio-economic rights. For core rights pertaining to the workplace, it is the most conservative region in the world....
Regional Judicial Cooperation and Dialogue in Asia
This chapter focuses on avenues by which judges in Asia interact with their counterparts in other States on constitutional questions. The practice of judicial networking in Asia is illustrated through case studies of the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts, the Asian Judges Network on Environment, and the Korean Constitutional Court. The chapter argues that the...
The Influence of International Law on Constitutional Law in Asia
How far has constitution-making in East Asian countries been influenced by the international law (and international society)? Many Asian countries established independence and stipulated their own constitutions for the first time after World War II. Therefore constitution-making was a new experience. It is not surprising that they overtly or covertly sought international or foreign aid....
The Constitutional Project of “One Country, Two Systems“ in Hong Kong
The constitutional arrangement of “One Country, Two Systems“ as applied to Hong Kong since 1997 was designed to enable Hong Kong as a Special Administrative region (SAR) of the People‘s Republic of China (PRC) to enjoy a high degree of autonomy, to preserve its common law based legal system, the rule of law, judicial independence...
The Right to Life and Human Dignity in Asia
This chapter surveys the right to life as a constitutional right in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. I begin with a recount of the history of the right to life. I argue that the right to life before WWII is typically formulated in the “due process model“, such...