2015 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Paradoxes of the National Family Law in East Asia: The Reconstruction of Legal Order in Colonial Taiwan
| Project/Area Number |
15H06680
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
Chen Yun・Ru 早稲田大学, 高等研究所, 助教 (10756365)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-08-28 – 2016-03-31
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| Keywords | law / history / family / nationalism / East Asia / Taiwan / colonialism |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This research challenges the seemingly invariable relationship between the nation and the family then and now by presenting a complex narrative description of the modernization of family law in East Asia, including the experience in late 19th- and early 20th- century Japan and colonial Taiwan (1895-1945). Through careful analysis of archives, the way in which how different actors, including government, jurists, and ordinary people constructed and participated into family law reform is elucidated. It tries to overcome the tension between national identity and liberal family law in contemporary legal reforms by providing an alterative narrative on how modernization of family laws have been debated, fulfilled and understood in East Asian societies.
In the period of research plan, I utilized two sets of archives in the pre-colonial and colonial era. First is the Dan-Xin Archives (1789-1895), which records the traditional Chinese administration of justice in the local Taiwanese courts. The second set of archive includes the Judicial Archives of Government-General (1896-1945) and the Taiwan Colonial Court Archives (1896-1945) during the Japanese colonial period, which helps us go beyond the “law in books” and see how Taiwanese family affairs were administered and adjudicated under the so-called “legal pluralism” and Taiwanese customary regime.
Ultimately, this project argues that family law does not necessary plays a reactionary role in developing nationalism and encourages the nationalists to formulate and advocate for family laws which could be unique and liberal.
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| Research Progress Status |
27年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
27年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。
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Research Products
(2 results)
