Synopses & Reviews
Itandrsquo;s long been known that Japanese file fewer lawsuits per capita than Americans do. Yet explanations for the difference have tended to be partial and unconvincing, ranging from circular arguments about Japanese culture to suggestions that the slow-moving Japanese court system acts as a deterrent.
Withand#160;Second-Best Justice, J. Mark Ramseyer offers a more compelling, better-grounded explanation: the low rate of lawsuits in Japan results not from distrust of a dysfunctional system but from trust in a system that worksandmdash;that sorts and resolves disputes in such an overwhelmingly predictable pattern that opposing parties rarely find it worthwhile to push their dispute to trial. Using evidence from tort claims across many domains, Ramseyer reveals a court system designed not to find perfect justice, but to andldquo;make doandrdquo;andmdash;to adopt strategies that are mostly right and that thereby resolve disputes quickly and economically.
An eye-opening study of comparative law,and#160;Second-Best Justiceand#160;will force a wholesale rethinking of the differences among alternative legal systems and their broader consequences for social welfare.and#160;
Review
"West possesses an uncommonly inquisitive curiosity, and his intrepid, in-depth investigations make him a consistently captivating guide. . . . This is a fine book and a stimulating read. . . . [West] possesses one of the most interesting minds in Japanese legal studies."
Review
"West provokes, entertains and challenges his readers to rethink the relationship between social norms and law and the multiple says in which legal rules shape behavior. In so doing he provides jhis readers new and interesting insights into aspects of law where no one else has venuted. He demonstrates above all that in everyday as well as not-so-everyday Japan, law matters."
Review
"As a book that touches the concretes of a seemingly formidable institution such as law, Law in Everyday Japan delivers a unique accomplishmentand#8212;notably giving Japanese law a human face."
Review
"The book is very skillfully written. The author addresses sometimes technical legal issues in a vernacular language that nonspecialists can readily understand. . . . A skillfull, astute, and fascinating book that should be of great value to many scholars, lawyers, laymen, and others."
Review
"As a book that touches the concretes of a seemingly formidable institution such as law, Law in Everyday Japan delivers a unique accomplishment-notably giving Japanese law a human face."-Sonia Ryang, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute(Sonia Ryang, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)
Review
"As a book that touches the concretes of a seemingly formidable institution such as law, Law in Everyday Japan delivers a unique accomplishment-notably giving Japanese law a human face."-Sonia Ryang, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute(Sonia Ryang, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)
Review
"This book contains an extremely well researched and presented series of case studies. It is highly recommended for legal anthropologists and essential reading for those in Japanese studies."
Review
"This book is a potential blockbuster in the field of Japanese law. Mark West attacks several obscure but sexy topics to help explain the many ways that culture and society mix with law in Japan. The result of a massive amount of original research, it is also written in an entertaining and engaging way."
Review
"Mark West has made a name for himself by applying economic analysis to a wide range of Japanese phenomena. In this book, he argues that law structures everyday Japanese interactions in a variety of unanticipated ways. Through several non-obvious but delightfully juicy case studies, he reveals the many colorful ways that law affects day-to-day life in Japan."
Review
and#8220;A blend of fieldwork, rational-choice theory, and statistical analysis, [West] traces the interplay of law, norms, and behavior through quirky case studies of rent-by-the-hour and#8216;love hotels;and#8217; the business hierarchies of sumo wrestling; Japanand#8217;s high rates of debt-related suicide; complaints by the karaoke-deafened against neighboring residents or bars; repair disputes among condominium owners before and after the 1995 Kobe earthquake; and, indeed, Japanese-style lost and found.and#8221;
Review
"[West] shows how Japanese are as rational as anyone in responding to carrots and sticks. This is a stimulating book on how the law influences everyday life in subtle and unexpected ways. His lucid explanations of the complex interplay between law and social norms playfully takes readers on a tour of love hotels, sumo stables and karaoke pubs, while also shedding light on Japanese traits such as honesty and diligence. . . . It is a fun read and where else can you find the history of love hotels?"
Review
and#8220;This is a superb book that explores the interaction of law society and culture over a range of intriguing topics. In seven captivating case studies, Mark West shows how law influences peopleand#8217;s behavior and perceptions in everyday situations. Rather than trumping law, social norms are powerfully shaped by it. We learn that Japanese respond to incentives and penalties in ways very similar to people in other societies. Readers who savor a unique and mystified Japan steeped in timeless customs are in from a jarring shock to their assumptions. . . . By choosing themes off the beaten track of legal analysis, West demonstrates that even the quirkiest phenomena can be analyzed. . . . And he does so in a delightfully engaging manner.and#8221;
Review
"Law in Everday Japan is a study of the interaction between legal structures and individual behavior that fills important gaps in our understanding of how conflict is managed in Japanese society. . . . A fine book, a good read, a downright useful piece of social science. It is a marvelously sane reminder of the value of being painstaking and rigorous and the silliness of hewing too closely to any methodological or theoretical dogmas."
Review
"This is without doubt a creative, informative, and conscientiously argued book from which anthropologists and other students of Japan will have much to learn."
Review
andldquo;Ramseyerandmdash;often unorthodox, rebellious, paradigm-subvertingandmdash;has occasionally found himself cast as the enfant terrible of Japanese law, economics, and politics.andnbsp;With this marvelous book, Second-Best Justice, he again takes aim at conventional wisdom with a brilliant, measured, and highly contextualized takedown of the common belief that low litigation rates in Japan indicate that the Japanese legal system is fundamentally flawed. Ramseyer offers an alternative, ingeniously nuanced explanation for why Japanese donandrsquo;t sue: andnbsp;The system aims for good, not perfection. Ramseyerandrsquo;s argument is so compelling that itandrsquo;s difficult to imagine his ideas wonandrsquo;t form the next conventional wisdom. With a cavalcade of evidence that powerfully challenges dominant counterarguments, Second-Best Justice is essential reading that is sure to spark controversy, as well as change minds.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This well-written book offers a wealth of fascinating information about Japanandrsquo;s health care and legal systems. Ramseyer provides very concise and fascinating accounts of the labor practice and policy, landlord tenant law, consumer finance law, and more, which are set in historical context and both amusing and informative.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;In predictably insightful and lucid fashion, Ramseyer shows how the Japanese legal system andlsquo;makes doandrsquo; with relatively simple, predictable rules to resolve a variety of common disputes.andnbsp; The result, it turns out, is a legal system that functions just fineandmdash;perhaps much better than one aspiring to perfect, individualized justice. Second-Best Justice is an astute commentary on the Japanese legal system, and by implication, the US system to which it is often compared.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Replete with facts, figures, and statistical analyses, Second-Best Justice is a richly detailed examination of Japanandrsquo;s andlsquo;second-bestandrsquo; system for handling personal injury casesandmdash;a system that, Ramseyer argues, puts the United States to shame.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Lawsuits are rare events in most people's lives. High-stakes cases are even less commonplace. Why is it, then, that scholarship about the Japanese legal system has focused almost exclusively on epic court battles, large-scale social issues, and corporate governance? Mark D. West's
Law in Everyday Japan fills a void in our understanding of the relationship between law and social life in Japan by shifting the focus to cases more representative of everyday Japanese life.
Compiling case studies based on seven fascinating themesand#8212;karaoke-based noise complaints, sumo wrestling, love hotels, post-Kobe earthquake condominium reconstruction, lost-and-found outcomes, working hours, and debt-induced suicideand#8212;Law in Everyday Japan offers a vibrant portrait of the way law intermingles with social norms, historically ingrained ideas, and cultural mores in Japan. Each example is informed by extensive fieldwork. West interviews all of the participants-from judges and lawyers to defendants, plaintiffs, and their families-to uncover an everyday Japan where law matters, albeit in very surprising ways.
Synopsis
Japanese society is as legalistic and rulebound as that of the US, yet Japanese people file far fewer lawsuits than Americans.and#160; Explanations for this behavior range from circular arguments about Japanese culture to suggestions that the Japanese court system is so slow-moving and unfriendly to plaintiffs that everyone knows better than to engage in it.and#160; However, there is much more to civil litigation in Japan, as preeminent scholar of Japanese law J. Mark Ramseyer explains in Doing Well by Making Do: Second-Best Judging in Japanese Law.and#160; With illustrations drawn from tort claims across many domainsand#151;auto accidents, product liability, medical malpractice, landlord-tenant law, and moreand#151;Ramseyer shows that the low rate of lawsuits in Japan is compelled not by distrust of a dysfunctional system, but by a system that sorts and resolves disputes in such an overwhelmingly predictable pattern that only rarely do contesting parties find it worthwhile to involve themselves in the uncertainty of a trial.and#160; Japanese judges do not pretend to offer the level of particularized inquiry that one expects in American courts.and#160; The Japanese court system is not designed to find perfect justice.and#160; It is designed to and#147;make do.and#8221;and#160; Through close attention to key arenas of tort litigation, as well as more obscure corners of the law including labor, landlord-tenant, and consumer-finance disputes, Doing Well by Making Do offers a key to unlocking the aims, incentives, flaws, and virtues of the distinctive Japanese court system.
Synopsis
In The Politics of Islamic Law political scientist Iza Hussin offers a genealogy of contemporary Islamic law, a political analysis of elite negotiations over religion, state, and society in the British colonial period, and a history of current Muslim approaches to law, state, and identity. Hussin argues that Islamic law as it is legislated and debated throughout the Muslim world today is no longer the shariandrsquo;ah as it previously existed. She shows that shariandrsquo;ahandmdash;an uncodified and locally administered set of legal institutions and laws with wide-ranging jurisdictionandmdash;was transformed (not eradicated as some have argued) during the British colonial period into a codified, state-centered system with jurisdiction largely limited to law regarding family, personal status, ethnic identity, and the andldquo;privateandrdquo; domain.and#160; As a result, the practices, beliefs, and possibilities inherent in law, changed, and so did the strategies, attitudes and aspirations of those who used this changing system. Its present institutional forms, its substantive content, its symbolic vocabulary, and its relationship to state and societyandndash;in short, its politicsandndash;are built upon foundations laid during the colonial encounter, in struggles between local and colonial elites. The Politics of Islamic Law undertakes a cross-regional comparison of India, Malaya, and Egypt which illustrates that Islamic law is a trans-global product shaped by local political networks. The rearrangement of the local elite combined with the new reach of the state made possible by colonial power gave local elites a vested interest in this twinning of the centrality of Islamic legitimacy and the marginalization of its legal content. These processes are traced through close examinations of debates over jurisdiction, the definition of Islamic law, and in turn the nature of the state. This work makes an important contribution to critical debates in comparative politics, history, legal anthropology, comparative law, and Islamic studies.
About the Author
Mark D. West is the Nippon Life Professor of Law and director of the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan. He is coauthor of
Economic Organizations and Corporate Governance in Japan: The Impact of Formal and Informal Rules. Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Doing Well by Making Do
Chapter 2. A Tort System That Works: Traffic Accidents
Chapter 3. A System with Few Claims: Products Liability
Chapter 4. Few Claims, but for a Different Reason: Medical Malpractice (I)
Chapter 5. Medical Malpractice (II)
Chapter 6. Wrong but Predictably Wrong: Labor, Landlord-Tenant, and Consumer Finance
Chapter 7. A Second-Best Court
Chapter 8. Conclusion
Notes
References
Index