ABSTRACT
This volume is the fourth in a series of books on law in Asia; three of the four volumes represent the outcomes of three conferences held at theUniversity ofHong Kong which this author has participated in organizing during the last few years. The first volume, Asian Discourses of Rule of Law,1 provides an overview of the conceptions of and discourses relating to the Rule of Law in Asia, as well as the basic institutional framework of Asian legal systems. It was intended to provide the foundation of and pave the way for more specialized studies in subsequent volumes of the series. The second volume, Human Rights in Asia,2 explores the theory and practice of human rights in various Asian jurisdictions. Given the importance of human rights and the close connection between the Rule of Law and the protection of human rights, the second volume naturally and logically proceeds on the basis of the first. This present volume is more specialized than the three previous volumes and investigates into a specific domain of substantive and procedural law – administrative law, and a specific dimension of the legal system – the judiciary. It is intended to add to the growing body of scholarship on how law and the Rule of Law operates in Asia – particularly East and Southeast Asia, and how legal theories and practices transplanted to Asia in the course of colonization and modernization have been adapted to local circumstances and culture and to meet the challenges faced by Asian societies in this era of democratization, globalization and other great political, economic and social changes.
