48067 - Asian Countries Law

Learning outcomes

The course introduces students to the knowledge of the law of East Asian countries, with particular attention to Chinese and Japanese legal systems, from a comparative perspective.

The aim of the course is to provide students with the basic methodological knowledge of comparative analysis useful to frame the dynamics of the development of East Asian legal systems. The study will be approached from a historical-comparative perspective, aimed at highlighting the growing complexity of the relationship between Western and Eastern legal tradition in modern and contemporary times and the change in perspective that these relationships are experiencing in the current context of globalization. Particular attention is paid to the study of law formants and their role in the Chinese and Japanese sectors of the legal systems that are more connected to the themes of innovation and sustainability.

Course contents

The course is divided into two modules of 23 and 25 hours.

The course program is organized as follows:

1. Introduction

1.1. Law as a representation: legal orientalism; 1.2. The classification of legal systems and the centrality of the Western Legal Tradition; 1.3. Non-Western legal systems: analytical and classification problems; 1.4. Language and law: problems of knowledge and translation of East-Asian legal languages.

2. Non-Western legal systems: general analysis

2.1. Non-Western law: the traditional substrate and the introduction of Western models in modern and contemporary times; 2.2. The legal systems of East Asia: the Chinese model as a historically dominant model; 2.3. Imperialism and the modernization of East-Asian legal systems: the first Chinese and Japanese modernization.

3. Japanese Legal System

3.1. The law of Imperial and Shogunate Japan; 3.2. The Tokugawa era and the centralized feudalism; 3.3. The administration of justice in the Tokugawa era; 3.4. The Japanese law between feudal hierarchies and economic dynamism; 3.5. The Meiji era; 3.6. The modernizing reforms of the nineteenth century; 3.7. The post-war era.

4. Contemporary Chinese Legal System

4.1. The Evolution of Chinese legal system; 4.2. The end of the empire and the clash with Western powers; 4.3. The codifications of the 1930s in the Republic of China; 4.3. The long march and the rise of Mao; 4.4. The Maoist era and the Cultural Revolution; 4.5. Democratic centralism; 4.6. The role of law; 4.7. Deng Xiaoping and the modernization; 4.8. One country two systems: the example of Hong Kong.

5. Dispute resolution in China and Japan

5.1. Mediation in China and Japan; 5.2. Arbitration in China and Japan; 5.3. The role of the arbitration commissions; 5.4. The implementation of foreign praises; 5.5. One country two systems: arbitration in Hong Kong.

6. Chinese Legal reforms in the digital era

6.1. Processes of technological innovation and development of digital economy in China; 6.2. Legal evolution on e-commerce, data protection, artificial intelligence.

Readings/Bibliography

5 CFU (Students enrolled in the course of Statistical Sciences – COSDI)
AJANI, SERAFINO, TIMOTEO (A CURA DI), Il diritto dell'Asia orientale, Utet, 2007, pp. 133-228; 299-394; 437-460.

6 CFU (Students enrolled in the course COSLI – Political Sciences)
AJANI, SERAFINO, TIMOTEO (A CURA DI), Il diritto dell'Asia orientale, Utet, 2007, pp. 1-104; 133-228; 299-394; 437-460.

7 CFU (Law Students - Single Cycle Degree/ Combined Bachelor and Master in Law)

AJANI, SERAFINO, TIMOTEO (A CURA DI), Il diritto dell'Asia orientale, Utet, Torino, 2007, pp. 1 – 436.

VERRI, La Nuova Via della Seta e il cammino della Cina verso il modello del “Sustainable Going Out”, in Opinio Juris in Comparatione, vol 1, 2020, pp. 145-162.

TIMOTEO, Il Codice civile cinese: un punto dentro una linea, in Rivista di diritti comparati, 2022, pp. 653-672

CARPI, L’arbitrato nella regione amministrativa speciale di Hong Kong, in Rivista trimestrale di diritto e procedura civile, 2020, pp. 1237-1253.

8 CFU (Students enrolled in the course COSDI – Political Sciences from A.Y. 2013/2014)

AJANI, SERAFINO, TIMOTEO (A CURA DI), Il diritto dell'Asia orientale, Utet, Torino, 2007, pp. 1-468.

Sul trasferimento di modelli:

TIMOTEO, Fare cose con gli emblemi. Termini e categorie del nuovo diritto civile cinese, in GRAZIADEI, POZZO (a cura di), Categorie e terminologie del diritto nella prospettiva della comparazione, Giuffré ed., Milano, 2015, pp. 248-271.

TIMOTEO, Il Codice civile cinese: un punto dentro una linea, in Rivista di diritti comparati, 2022, pp. 653-672

VERRI, La Nuova Via della Seta e il cammino della Cina verso il modello del “Sustainable Going Out”, in Opinio Juris in Comparatione, vol 1, 2020, pp. 145-162.

CARPI, L’arbitrato nella regione amministrativa speciale di Hong Kong, in Rivista trimestrale di diritto e procedura civile, 2020, pp. 1237-1253.

9 CFU (Students enrolled in the course Language, Markets and Cultures of Asia – Degree in Foreign Language)

AJANI, SERAFINO, TIMOTEO (A CURA DI), Il diritto dell'Asia orientale, Utet, Torino, 2007, pp. 1-468.

ABBATISTA, Chinese Law and Justice: Geroge Thomas Stunton (1781-1859) and the European Discourses on China in the Eighteenth and Ninteenth Centuries, in ABBATTISTA (ed.), Law, Justice and Codification in Qing China. European and Chinese Perspectives. Essays in History and Comparative Law, 2017, EUT, Trieste, pp. 1-135.

TIMOTEO, Fare cose con gli emblemi. Termini e categorie del nuovo diritto civile cinese, in GRAZIADEI, POZZO (a cura di), Categorie e terminologie del diritto nella prospettiva della comparazione, Giuffré ed., Milano, 2015, pp. 248-271.

ORTOLANI, Riflessioni in materia di lingua e diritto in Giappone, in POZZO (a cura di), Lingua e diritto: oltre l’Europa, Giuffré editore, Milano, 2014, pp. 103-140.

10 CFU (Students enrolled in the course COSDI – Political Sciences from A.Y. 2011/2012)

-AJANI, SERAFINO, TIMOTEO (A CURA DI), Il diritto dell'Asia orientale, Utet, Torino, 2007, pp. 1-468.

ABBATISTA, Chinese Law and Justice: Geroge Thomas Stunton (1781-1859) and the European Discourses on China in the Eighteenth and Ninteenth Centuries, in ABBATTISTA (ed.), Law, Justice and Codification in Qing China. European and Chinese Perspectives. Essays in History and Comparative Law, 2017, EUT, Trieste, pp. 1-135.

TIMOTEO, Fare cose con gli emblemi. Termini e categorie del nuovo diritto civile cinese, in GRAZIADEI, POZZO (a cura di), Categorie e terminologie del diritto nella prospettiva della comparazione, Giuffré ed., Milano, 2015, pp. 248-271.

TIMOTEO, Il Codice civile cinese: un punto dentro una linea, in Rivista di diritti comparati, 2022, pp. 653-672

VERRI, La Nuova Via della Seta e il cammino della Cina verso il modello del “Sustainable Going Out”, in Opinio Juris in Comparatione, vol 1, 2020, pp. 145-162.

CARPI, L’arbitrato nella regione amministrativa speciale di Hong Kong, in Rivista trimestrale di diritto e procedura civile, 2020, pp. 1237-1253.

N.B. Please note that the registration for the exam should be done via the online platform "Almaesami", at least one week before the exam. Please note that no registration via mail will be accepted.

Teaching methods

The course follows an interdisciplinary approach. The teaching method aims at the direct involvement and active participation of the students in class, also through group work, combining classic frontal lessons with the study and critical analysis of cases and texts that play a decisive role in the evolution and analysis of modern and contemporary East Asian legal systems.

In this perspective, it will be possible for interested students to prepare (individually or in groups) presentations or term papers on specific topics, to be discussed in class.

The intensity and continuity of participation to the course will be assessed by self-certification.

Assessment methods

The final exam will be done orally, through an interview with the professor and its assistants. The marks are out of 30/30.

The oral examination is designed to appreciate the level of understanding and mastery of the comparative method in the study of East-Asian legal systems, as well as the active ability of working with the fundamental rules of these systems. The achievement by the student of an organic vision of the issues addressed, and in particular the ability to capture the dynamic aspects of the legal systems of the East-Asian countries and their processes of modernization, in a comparative perspective, will be evaluated with marks of excellence. The knowledge of the topics covered in the course that is mainly mnemonic and notional and that will lead to an oral colloquium not well supported by reasoning of synthesis and analysis of the issues, and the using an organic and correct language but not always appropriate, will lead to an average pass outcome; training gaps and / or inappropriate language, albeit in the context of a minimal knowledge of the exam material, will lead to just enough mark; training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of guidance within the texts, will be adversely evaluated.

For students attending the course, it will be possible to substitute part of the oral examination with papers on topics agreed upon with the teachers.

In order to sit for the exam, registration through the electronic platform "Almaesami" is required, in compliance with mandatory deadlines (usually 7 days before the date set for the examination). Those who do not succeed with the enrolling by the due date, are required to report promptly (and in any event before the official closing of the registration lists) the problem to the school's secretary office. The professor, evaluated the problem, will decide about the admission to sit for the exam.

The record of the evaluation can be done only on the date set and indicated in Almaesami, following the previous registration.

The course will be held in the first semester and therefore students who have chosen the course in the current year will be able to sit for the exam starting from the month of January.

Only students that are regularly enrolled, that paid all the due university taxes will be able to sit for the examinations. Under no circumstances it will be possible to sit the examination and proceed with the registration not simultaneously.

Thesis

For the purposes of assigning a Bachelor’s degree project in Law of the Asian Countries, the knowledge of at least one foreign language is required. The level of the foreign language will be verified through a preliminary interview. Interested students are therefore invited to contact the teacher or Prof. Angela Carpi to agree on the date on which the colloquium is to be held.
Once the subject of the dissertation has been identified and approved by the teacher, the students will have to periodically inform the rapporteur on the state of progress of the work, according to a work program agreed upon. Once the thesis is completed and the teacher's permission is received, the students will be able to proceed with the secretarial delivery within institutionally established terms.

Where strictly necessary, the correlation request must be discussed and agreed with the teacher, who will eventually contact the chosen teacher for correlation.

Teaching tools

During the course, additional materials (ie, judicial decisions, academic writings and videos) will be made available for student. Moreover, experts will be invited to hold lectures.

Teaching materials will be available on the "virtuale" platofrm. The access to the platform is possible trough UNIBO personal credentials.

Office hours

See the website of Marina Timoteo

See the website of Barbara Verri