This book explores one of the 20th century’s most consequential
global political thinkers and yet one of the most overlooked. Tanaka
Kōtarō (1890-1974) was modern Japan’s pre-eminent legal scholar
and jurist. Yet because most of his writing was in Japanese, he has
been largely overlooked outside of Japan. His influence in Japan was
extraordinary: the only Japanese to serve in all three branches of
government, and the longest serving Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court. His influence outside Japan also was extensive, from his
informal diplomacy in Latin America in the prewar period to serving on
the International Court of Justice in the 1960s. His stinging dissent
on that court in the 1966 South-West Africa Case is often cited even
today by international jurists working on human rights issues. Above
and beyond these particular lines of influence, Tanaka outlined a
unique critique of international law as inherently imperialistic and
offered as its replacement a theory of World Law (aka“Global Law”)
based on the Natural Law. What makes Tanaka’s position especially
notable is that he defended the Natural Law not as a European but from
his vantage point as a Japanese jurist, and he did so not from public
law, but from his own expertise in private law. This work introduces
Tanaka to a broader, English-reading public and hopes thereby to
correct certain biases about the potential scope of ideas concerning
human rights, universality of reason, law and ethics.
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Rethinking the Natural Law Outside the West
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9783030020354
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Palgrave Pivot
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter