Children and Law in the Shadows
Legal Ideologies and Personal Strategies in Response to Parental Abductions in Japan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12423971 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Allison Alexy (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 523-549 |
| Publication date | 2021-07-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | positions asia critique (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1067-9847 • E-ISSN: 1527-8271 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/10679847-8978334 |
| OpenAlex | W3183967248 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
In contemporary Japan, police and law enforcement are often reluctant to assist in family conflicts. In practice, law enforcement and the family law system offer little assistance for people struggling with family conflicts in particular, following the logic that “law does not belong in families.” This article examines the informal, familial, financial, and social means people use to solve what might be called “family problems” when formal legal assistance is foreclosed. Operating as alternatives to the legal system, these strategies nevertheless are structured directly in response to the formal legal system, what it supports and allows. The article uses theorizations of legal consciousness, law's “shadows,” and “order without law” to compare strategies and reactions of Japanese citizens and foreigners engaging the legal system in Japan. It argues that the written and unwritten rules surrounding Japanese family law reward those who seek solutions outside of formal channels, thereby co-constructing the legal system as unable to solve family conflicts. Linking individual strategies with outcomes, it concludes that family members who expect less assistance from the formal legal system often end up winning more
Business · Enforcement · Family law · Ideology · Law enforcement · Legal consciousness · Legal research · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Conflict of Laws and Jurisdiction · Law · Marriage and Sexual Relationships
Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law
Kinship, Law and the Unexpected
The Japanese Family
Intimate Disconnections
Family law and its discontents
On Women and Legal Concepts
The Law of the Subtle Mind
Family Law Exceptionalism in Comparative Law
Reluctant Litigant Revisited
The Myth of the Reluctant Litigant
Japanese Law
Critical Directions in Comparative Family Law
Law in Japan. The Legal Order in a Changing Society
The Management of Disputes
Introduction to Japanese Law
The Japanese Mind
Gender and the Japanese State
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |