Asian Journal of Comparative Law

The Asian Journal of Comparative Law is an initiative of the Asian Law Institute, an association of thirteen leading law schools in Asia. The aim of the Journal is to provide a forum for discussion of the law and legal systems of Asia. The Journal is peer reviewed. The e-version of an accepted article is published after final editing; the print version is published once a year.

We will consider for publication articles that explore solutions to common legal and social problems like gender inequality, work safety, disclosure in securities regulation, agency problems in corporate governance, appropriate penalties for crimes. We invite scholars from both Asia and elsewhere who have 'local knowledge' to shed light on how legal solutions are tailored to take into account local culture and circumstances. Scholarly pieces that explore the different approaches adopted in two or more jurisdictions are welcome, as are pieces that concentrate on the experience of only one jurisdiction.

We also seek articles which display an intimate knowledge of Asian legal systems, and thus provide a window to the way they work in practice. In a manuscript on the credit crisis in Korea, for example, the author might explain the assumptions leading to the change in law on credit financing, their impact and the subsequent policy responses. As the audience is expected not to have the background knowledge possessed by a domestic audience, the author will be expected provide more background material than if the manuscript were published in a local journal.

The journal hopes to attract theoretical and empirical pieces, for example, an article that proposes a metric for assessing the degree of integration for regional organizations or one that explores comparative East Asian legal philosophies.

We also invite works which describe or analyse Asian perspectives on international law, globalization and regional integration. The different interests of the many countries in Asia point to different perspectives on norms that should animate the international legal system, as well as the institutions that sustain it. We would like to provide a forum for the articulation of the way Asians look at laws and legal systems.

“Comparative” in the title of the Journal is used in its widest sense. A submission does not necessarily need to compare two or more legal systems or cultures. It suffices that the scholar presents an issue with sufficient contextual elaboration, to enable an outsider to have a good understanding of a legal issue.