Human Rights Constitutionalism in Japan and Asia (Writings of)

320 Pages·2009·1.44 MB·English

by  Lafayette College The Writings of Lawrence W. Beer

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Human Rights Constitutionalism in Japan and Asia
The Writings of Lawrence W. Beer
Lawrence Ward Beer was born in Portland, Oregon on May 11, 1932. In 1966 he received the Ph.D.
degree from the University of Washington, Seattle. In over fifty years of studying the constitutional
law and politics of Japan and other Asian countries, he has written and lectured extensively on
human rights law (e.g., Freedom of Expression in Japan, 1984). He taught at the University of
Colorado, Boulder, 1966–1982, and was F.M. Kirby Professor of Civil Rights, Lafayette College,
1982–1997.
Lawrence W. Beer has chaired the Committee on Asian Law of the Association for Asian Studies
and the World Association of Law Professors of the World Peace through Law Center. He received
the Distinguished Asianist Award of the Mid-Atlantic Association for Asian Studies in 2003.
In retirement, he lives with his wife Keiko in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
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Less noticed in the West than wars, terrorism and economic trends has been the historic develop-
ment since World War II of constitutional government and law in Asia. Lawrence W. Beer has been a
close observer of Asian linkages among law, politics, culture, and national security issues for over
fifty years. His perspectives have been refined during long residence in Asia, especially Japan, by
substantial friendly interactions with Asian legal scholars, judges and attorneys involved in the
world of human rights constitutional law.
This volume, which will be widely welcomed by students and researchers, brings together a
selection of Lawrence W. Beer’s many works previously published in diverse venues, but no longer
easily accessible.
The collection opens with a review of constitutionalism in Asia and the United States and con-
cludes with a recent examination of Japan’s rejection of war: ‘Japan’s Constitutional Discourse and
Performance’. By way of Afterword, the author offers an in-depth review of ‘Globalization of
Human Rights in the 21st Century’.
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Lawrence W. Beer
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THE WRITINGS OF
Volume 1
Human Rights Constitutionalism
in Japan and Asia
THE WRITINGS OF LAWRENCE W. BEER
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Series: THE WRITINGS OF
Volume 1
HUMAN RIGHTS CONSTITUTIONALISM IN JAPAN AND ASIA
The Writings of Lawrence W. Beer
First published 2009 by
GLOBAL ORIENTAL LTD
PO Box 219
Folkestone
Kent CT20 2WP
UK
www.globaloriental.co.uk
© Global Oriental Ltd 2009
ISBN 978-1-905246-71-7
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical or other means, now known
or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
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system, without prior permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available
from the British Library
Set in Plantin 10 on 11pt by RefineCatch, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed and bound in England by Antony Rowe Ltd., Chippenham, Wilts
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Contents
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Preface vii
Part I
Asia 1
1 Constitutionalism in Asia and the United States 3
2 Current Human Rights Issues in Asia 42
3 Constitutionalism and Rights in Japan and Korea 51
4 Comparative Perspectives on Human Rights in Korea 81
5 Human Rights Theory and “Freedom Culture” 95
Part II
Japan 111
6 Japan, 1969: “My Homeism” and Political Struggle 113
7 Social Patterns and Freedom of Expression 125
8 Human Rights Commissioners (Jinken Yogo Iin) and Lay Protection
of Human Rights in Japan 153
9 Constitutional Revolution in Japanese Law, Society, and Politics 167
10 Freedom of Expression: The Continuing Revolution 194
11 Japan’s Constitutional Law, 1945–1990 219
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CONTENTS
12 National Security and Freedom of Expression in Japan 249
13 Rejection of War: Japan’s Constitutional Discourse and Performance 259
Part III
The Future 265
14 Conclusion: Towards Human Rights Constitutionalism in Asia and
the United States? 267
15 Afterword: Asian Constitutionalism in the Twenty-First Century 276
Appendix: Adventures with Asia 288
Bibliography (Writings of Lawrence W. Beer) 296
Index 303
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Preface
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In the second half of the twentieth century the colonial powers—the United
Kingdom, the United States, Holland, Japan, Portugal, and France—yielded to
Asian demands for independence and went home. Each Asian country, drawing on
indigenous and Western sources, adopted a single-document national constitution
with some provision for human rights. This book brings together a selection from
many writings on human rights constitutionalism in Asia published over the past
fifty years but not now easily accessible to students of Asia.
During long residence in Asia, especially Japan, I have learned much from
indigenous constitutional lawyers while introducing the non-Asian world to the
legal, political and cultural dimensions of human rights in Asia. A byproduct of this
work has been to join in the dialog among Asian scholars unfamiliar with each
other’s constitutional systems. The geographical, legal, and cultural distances
between Asian countries, for example, between Pakistan and Korea, are formidable.
The occasion for producing the first of two panoramic books on constitutionalism
in Asia was the 1976 bicentennial of the United States Declaration of Independence.
The Committee on Asian Law of the Association for Asian Studies co-sponsored
with many public agencies and private organizations a month-long program of pre-
sentations by some of Asia’s most distinguished jurists. As they traveled the country,
they shared their perspectives on the American influence, if any, on constitutional-
ism in their respective countries. This resulted in Constitutionalism in Asia: Asian
Views of the American Influence (University of California Press, 1979); this and a
subsequent second edition are out of print. Years later, as the bicentennials of the
Constitution of the United States of America (1987) and the Bill of Rights (1991)
approached, professional colleagues, most persistently Professor Albert P. Blaustein,
urged on the publication of a second volume, containing thirteen country studies,
Constitutional Systems in Late Twentieth Century Asia (University of Washington
Press, 1992), from which comes the first chapter of the present book.
The other items were chosen for inclusion based on favorable comment by
colleagues in the field, earlier republication, or a belief that they lent helpful perspec-
tive on the status of human rights constitutional law in the country discussed.
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PREFACE
Comparative constitutional studies seem best served by a methodological approach
which gives attention to constitutional and statutory texts, policies, judicial
decisions, institutions, and elements of legal culture peculiar to the country and
issue under study.
This book is suffused with the conviction that a country’s performance with
respect to constitutionalism is a more valid measure of “advanced” or “high civiliza-
tion” than its prowess in economic, technological, military or legal terms, because
modern barbarism is compatible with all those standards. And among the various
alternative foundations for a nation’s constitutionalism a preoccupation with
defense and promotion of human rights sets the bar highest.
For fifty years of generous sharing of their perspectives on human rights in consti-
tutional law, I should thank many legal scholars, judges and lawyers of Asia, especially
Japan. For their support of this republication project, I am most grateful to Arthur
Stockwin, Kendall Whitney, Larry Repeta, Hidenori Tomatsu, and Paul Norbury.
Lawrence W. Beer
Boulder, Colorado USA
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PART I
ASIA
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