Authority Without Power: Law and the Japanese Paradox

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Oxford University Press, 1991 - History - 258 pages
This book offers a comprehensive interpretive study of the role of law in contemporary Japan. Haley argues that the weakness of legal controls throughout Japanese history has assured the development and strength of informal community controls based on custom and consensus to maintain order--an order characterized by remarkable stability, with an equally significant degree of autonomy for individuals, communities, and businesses. Haley concludes by showing how Japan's weak legal system has reinforced preexisting patterns of extralegal social control, thus explaining many of the fundamental paradoxes of political and social life in contemporary Japan.
 

Contents

Introduction
3
The Elements Attributes and Functions of Law
5
Authority without Power
13
Laws Domain
14
Continuity with Change The Historical Foundations of Governance and Legal Control in Japan
17
Cohesion with Conflict The Containment of Legal Controls
81
Command without Coercion
193
Notes
201
References
233
Index
251
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About the author (1991)

John Owen Haley is at University of Washington School of Law.

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