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The Legal Metaverse and Comparative Taxonomy: A Reappraisal
No full textThe present Article revisits my “Three Patterns of Law: Taxonomy and Change in the World’s Legal Systems”—published in this very Journal a quarter century ago—which acknowledged the ideological nature of the law versus politics distinction and posited taxonomy as a means for understanding law. The original article classified law into professional law, political law, and traditional law, and heralded the tentative and dynamic natures of such classification. The two purposes of the present Article are to (i) reflect on legal transformations that have since occurred as reactions to global geopolitical, technological, and economic changes, and (ii) interrogate whether epistemological assumptions that produced the Three Patterns of Law hypothesis still hold. The question the present Article poses is whether a fourth pattern of law is now necessary to capture the new technological state of affairs and the new geopolitical balances of power: in particular, should a rule of smart law be introduced? This Article surveys some of the relevant legal transformations capable of impacting the mapping of each legal pattern to a given geography. Because the Internet (like law, religion, tradition, or language) is an informative-normative system that has produced a new frontier of development, and because of its ubiquity, I have used it as a test for the current viability of the hypothesis. I conclude that it is too early to add a fourth pattern of law; but it is, perhaps, too late to avoid a pattern of no law taking over global hegemony by substituting algorithms for lawyers
A One-State Solution to the Arab- Israeli/Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Recommendation Supported by a Review of the Historical Record and Current Context
No full textThis article examines the legal underpinning of the creation of the state of Israel and historical documents to note that despite calls for a two-state solution at the UN, a one-state solution to the conflict is not necessarily precluded. It then identifies why both the status quo and the proposed two state solution are problematic and untenable. Lastly, it looks to the example of South Africa because of similarities between South Africa and modern day Israel/Palestine. It concludes that the creation of a single state, following the example of post-apartheid South Africa, is the only solution to the conflict that will create a comprehensive, just, durable, and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis
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No full textOld Wine in a New Bottle? – An Empirical Evaluation of the Judicial Reforms in China in the 2010s
No full textThis article provides an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of the judicial reform measures implemented in China in the 2010s. Among other objectives, the reforms aimed to strengthen the independence of judges, the financial autonomy of courts and the professionalism of adjudicators. Critics have questioned the success of the reforms, citing continued government intervention with adjudication and unchanged structural problems with courts. To date, there has been limited empirical literature focusing specifically on the judicial reform measures in the 2010s in China. This article provides a glimpse into what really was happening on the ground since the reforms through the lens of frontline judges. It concludes that the reforms have enhanced the financial autonomy of courts, the independence of individual adjudicators and the quality of judgments. 47% of the judges who responded to the survey agreed that the judicial reform was extremely effective. However, this study also reveals that the reforms failed to tackle deep-seated problems of the Chinese judiciary. Local government intervention with adjudication is still rampant. Courts continued to be severely understaffed. Judges are still ready to abridge procedures to arrive at an outcome that is consistent with the policy of the court leadership. While the reform is not “old wine in a new bottle”, there is still much room for improvement in the administration of justice in China
“Whale Wars” — Are the Japanese whaling just because they can? A testament of failed international whaling policy
No full textThis paper analyzes whaling law and practices in Japan. This paper briefly compares Japanese whaling to whaling in Norway and Iceland, as well as Indigenous whaling but mainly focuses on Japan’s domestic ethos around “whaling culture,” their policies, which perpetuate whaling even though the industry is no longer profitable, and their unique relationship with the International Whaling Commission. This paper further analyzes the International Whaling Commission’s main document, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, and its inability to keep rogue nations in check, and recommends that anti-whaling nations combine both soft law and sanctions to pressure Japan to cease its yearly whaling expeditions. This paper suggests that since a reform of the Convention is highly unlikely and the document itself is ineffective, the most successful path to eradication with be through sanctions on Japan’s fishing market, which will have a domino effect on the other nations (Norway and Iceland) who are acting outside of the bounds of the push for an international whaling norm