It has been more than a decade since Kyushu University instituted Japan’s first graduate law program taught entirely in English. The Annual Kyushu Law Conference was inaugurated in 2006 to celebrate the far-reaching accomplishments of our alumni and reinforce our commitment to elevating the level of English language legal education and scholarship in Japan. It is my hope that this event will not only be an exchange of academic ideas, but will reinforce old friendships, build new ones, and challenge our current students to embrace novel ideas.
After the initial Alumni Symposium and Law Conference, the Annuan Law Conference has now matured into one that has attracted such an exceptional field of scholars to Japan to exchange ideas in a common language. I am confident that with continued perseverance the Annual Kyushu Law Conference will soon develop a reputation for thoughtfully addressing cutting-edge legal issues and will continue to serve as a valuable educational opportunity for our students and for those interested in the covered topics.
The Faculty of Law of Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan), together with the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI) of University of Victoria (BC, Canada) and the Faculty of Management of Royal Roads University (Victoria, Canada) is jointly organizing "Special Economic Zones in Asian Market Economies: ['SEZAME'] What Next for SEZs?" Conference. To be held at Kyushu University, the Conference aims to identify the key stakeholders in SEZ practice and attempt to uncover their roles and expectations regarding law, policy, regulation, sustainability and outcomes in relation to SEZs.
It is hoped that the Kyushu conference will be the first step in a series of workshops, research papers and multi-disciplinary dialogues which might well culminate in a formal proposal for certification or international regulation of SEZs.
14-15th, February 2009
Nishijin Plaza, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
In the institutional practice of law and development, a new paradigm is emerging. The intellectual underpinnings of the so-called “new law and economic development” have been described, analyzed and criticized in a number of recent works, perhaps most notably, in the recently published The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal (Cambridge University Press, 2006). According to this new paradigm, “development” should be redefined more broadly than economic growth, following Amartya Sen’s famous formulation of development as “freedom.” Within this framework, the rule of law is to be pursued as an end of development in its own right rather than as a means to achieving economic success. At the same time, more attention is being paid by the international aid community to promoting democracy and protecting fundamental human rights. And social concerns are being integrated into mainstream development policies.
These exciting recent developments provide a rare opportunity for organizing a dialogue between scholars working on similar themes at the juncture of persisting old questions, anti-universalist ideas and various levels of localist approaches. The primary purpose of this conference, therefore, is to bring together scholars and development community practitioners from Asia, Europe and North America to address these “post-law and development” issues in contemporary Asian context. By providing a forum for interaction between leading scholars and local experts, this conference hopes to advance knowledge in the field of law and development.
Corporate Governance in East Asia is an issue of global consequence. The last half century has seen Japan, Korea and China experience “economic miracles” that have defined the growth of the global economy. The impact of the region over the next half century is likely to be even more dramatic – as the size of the region’s economy may indeed outstrip those of the US and the EU. One of the objectives of this conference is to gain a deeper understanding into how the building blocks of the economy in East Asia, its corporations, function.
The other objective is to evaluate the correctness of "convergence theory”, which looms large in the wider comparative corporate governance literature. The recent trend in East Asia of transplanting Anglo-American corporate governance mechanisms, as a means of reform, provides a rich context for engaging in the convergence debate.
With leading experts from each of East Asia’s major economies and the United States, we are confident that this conference will achieve its objectives. We hope that the conference leaves all those who attend it with a better sense of the direction that corporate governance in East Asia is heading, so that they may anticipate today the issues of tomorrow.
Since the inauguration of the LL.M Program in 1994, the English Programs in Law have grown to include the LL.D. and Y.L.P. degrees, and the total number of alumni of the Programs now exceeds 100. Moreover, the alumni represent over thirty countries which cover the continents of Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. Such a diverse and international alumni network offers extraordinary opportunities for alumni, current students, and the University.
It has been more than a decade since Kyushu University instituted Japan’s first graduate law program taught entirely in English. The Annual Kyushu Law Conference was inaugurated in 2006 to celebrate the far-reaching accomplishments of our alumni and reinforce our commitment to elevating the level of English language legal education and scholarship in Japan. It is my hope that this event will not only be an exchange of academic ideas, but will reinforce old friendships, build new ones, and challenge our current students to embrace novel ideas.
