BOOK: "The spirit of Korean Law. Korean Legal History in Context" by Marie Seong-Hak Kim (ed.)

The spirit of Korean Law. Korean Legal History in Context, by Marie Seong-Hak Kim (ed.)

Leiden: Brill Nijhoff, 2016

ISBN13: 9789004290778

E-ISBN: 9789004306011
http://www.brill.com/products/book/spirit-korean-law

This is the first book on Korean legal history in English written by a group of leading scholars from around the world. The chapters set forth the developments of Korean law from the Chosŏn to colonial and modern periods through the examination of codified laws, legal theories and practices, and jurisprudence. The contributors’ shared premise is that the evolution of Korean law can be best understood when viewed in terms of its interactions with outside laws. Each chapter integrates literature in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Western languages into comprehensive analyses to make up-to-date research available to readers both inside and outside Korea. This volume provides a solid framework from which to approach Korean legal history in the perspective of comparative legal traditions.

Biographical note

Marie Seong-Hak Kim (J.D. 1994; Ph.D. 1991) is Professor of History at St. Cloud State University. She is the author of Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History (2012) and Michel de L’Hôpital: The Vision of a Reformist Chancellor during the French Religious Wars (1997).

Readership

Anyone interested in Korean law, Korean history, East Asian legal history, and comparative legal traditions.

Table of contents

Preface 

List of Contributors 

Introduction: Searching for the Spirit of Korean Law 

Marie Seong-Hak Kim

Part 1 Legal Codes and Institutions of the Chosŏn Dynasty

The Chosŏn Law Codes in an East Asian Perspective 

Jérôme Bourgon and Pierre-Emmanuel Roux

Circulation of Law and Jurisprudence in Korea and China: Homicide and the Notion of Requital for Life 

Frédéric Constant

Confucian Ideology and Legal Developments in Chosŏn Korea: A Methodological Essay 

Anders Karlsson

Part 2 Law and the Legal System under Colonial Rule

The Rise of Korean Constitutional Thought (1875–1945): An East Asian Perspective 

Noriko Kokubun

Can There Be Good Colonial Law? Korean Law and Jurisprudence under Japanese Rule Revisited 

Marie Seong-Hak Kim

Legality or Legitimacy: Revisiting Debates on the Korea-Japan Annexation Treaties 

Samuel Guex

Part 3 Law, Court, and Legal Reform in Modern Korea

The Making of the Constitution and the Civil Code in Postliberation Korea 

Joon-Young Moon

The Role of the Constitutional Court of Korea in the Transition from Authoritarian to Democratic Rule

Justine Guichard

Korea and the Reform of the Northeast Asian Legal Complex 

Tom Ginsburg

Index