1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910392742603321

Autore

Doak Kevin M

Titolo

Tanaka Kōtarō and World Law : Rethinking the Natural Law Outside the West / / by Kevin M. Doak

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Pivot, , 2019

ISBN

9783030020354 (ebook)

Edizione

[1st ed. 2019.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (136 pages)

Collana

Global Political Thinkers, , 2946-3882

Disciplina

952.040922

340.112092

Soggetti

International relations

Asia - Politics and government

Human rights

Executive power

Globalization

Peace

International Relations Theory

Asian Politics

Human Rights

Executive Politics

Peace and Conflict Studies

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Chapter 1 The Formation of a Japanese Globalist Thinker -- Chapter 2 Law as a Universal Force for Good -- Chapter 3 Tanaka's Theory of World Law -- Chapter 4 A Globalist at Home -- Chapter 5 A Globalist Judge, at Home and Abroad -- Chapter 6 Tanaka's Final Years-and Beyond.

Sommario/riassunto

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. Kevin M. Doak is the Nippon Foundation Endowed Chair & Professor of Japanese Studies at Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.