Structures, Codes and Episodes: Trans-Asian Comparison of Judicial Processes c.1700-1900

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

An early and persistent orientalist stereotype of Asian societies was that they were lawless and the arbitrary will of the powerful always prevailed. Decades of research have demolished this, and we now know much about custom, law and adjudication in each Asian country. This panel will unearth regulatory structure through a study of “legal” process, broadly defined. The four papers range from Mongolia to Qing China through Thailand to India. Each of these was marked by ethnic diversity and legal pluralism. Did these common structural traits generate similar features in their legal processes? Or were the differences in political and religious cultures so great that adjudication differed in quantitatively distinct ways? What was the relation of codes and edicts to the actual outcomes of judicial process? The panel seeks to open a discussion between specialists as to how much pre-modern Asian societies had in common and how their differences assist us in understanding the logics of legal process across these diverse civilizations.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing

Session Organizer

• Sumit Guha, University of Texas at Austin

Individual Presentations

• Epic Lawsuit: A Marathi Poem about a Legal Dispute that Lasted 80 Years - Sumit Guha, University of Texas at Austin

• Sacral Objects and Profane Lives: Adjudicating Death in Nineteenth-Century Siam - Quentin Pearson, Harvard University

• Beyond the State Law: Judicial Practice in Qing Mongolia - Erdenchuluu Khohchahar, Kyoto University

• The “Web” Structure of the Judicial System in Qing Jingshi: A Ming-Qing Integration - Xiangyu Hu, Renmin University of China

Discussant

• Darryl Flaherty, University of Delaware