Mateusz Stępień

The article argues for reopening a serious discussion on the methodology of comparative studies on constitutional orders. Following this lead, it aims to reconstruct and critically discuss Michael W. Dowdle’s concept of constitutional listening. This concept contains a broad vision of conducting comparative studies of constitutional matters. Particular attention will be devoted to the empathic-based approach to other constitutional orders, which employs the Davinsonian principle of charity. This thread is one of the most interesting but controversial of Dowdle’s proposals. The article contains a general assessment of the concept of empathy-based constitutional listening.

*Publikacja przygotowana w ramach projektu badawczego finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Polska (wniosek nr 2019/33/B/HS5/01664).

The main aim of the paper is to analyze the ground-breaking imperial edict issued in the Middle Kingdom in 1906, which introduced a package of reforms aimed to establish a constitutional monarchy. The edict is an important part of the process of selective adaptation of not only certain Western institutions, but also the fundamental principles relating to the core organization of the political community. This process was neither mechanical nor one-dimensional. „Translation” of the Western object was involved in a number of dilemmas and challenges (the relationship between the tradition of the „new”; instrumentality or autotelicity of copying foreign institutions; selection of native counterparts of the copied objects). The main theoretical perspective employed in the paper is the “legal transplant” theory. It enables to point out a broader set of conclusions about the process of copying foreign laws and institutions basing on the particular example from China at the beginning of the 20th century.

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct Confucian reflections on law. Interestingly, even such a general aim has not previously been realised. Stereotypical, literal and oversimplified readings of Confucianism seem to dominate even in the professional literature. As a result, the thesis of the anti-legal character of Confucian teachings is widely reiterated. In this paper, a reconstruction of the Confucian approach to law takes account of the most basic assumptions organising Confucian thought. Only in this way can we identify the essential themes of Confucian reflection on law: (1) placing law within an ontology of the social world based on categories of ‘roots-basics’ (ben) and ‘branches-manifestations’ (mo) and (2) considering the impact of law on the self-cultivation processes which are, according to Confucianists, the ‘roots-foundation’.

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct Confucian reflections on law. Interestingly, even such a general aim has not previously been realised. Stereotypical, literal and oversimplified readings of Confucianism seem to dominate even in the professional literature. As a result, the thesis of the anti-legal character of Confucian teachings is widely reiterated. In this paper, a reconstruction of the Confucian approach to law takes account of the most basic assumptions organising Confucian thought. Only in this way can we identify the essential themes of Confucian reflection on law: (1) placing law within an ontology of the social world based on categories of ‘roots-foundations’ (ben) and ‘branches-manifestations’ (mo) and (2) considering the impact of law on the self-cultivation processes which are, according to Confucianists, the ‘root-foundation’.

The aim of the paper is to make an initial reconstruction and to undertake a preliminary analysis of the profound expedition of Japanese statesmen to the West (so called The Iwakura Mission) held in the second half of the nineteenth century. The basic purpose of The Iwakura Mission was to search for information and data (especially related to the shape of the legal and political system which would strengthen the Japanese state and society). The Iwakura Mission was a paradigmatic example not only for the next Japanese overseas expeditions, but also for the very similar embassies undertaken in the Middle Kingdom. The Author attempts to work out some preliminary findings necessary to propose more sophisticated set of hypotheses related to the processes of traveling as a source of knowledge on legal and political issues in the future. In this sense, the study of The Iwakura Mission is also a small contribution to developing both a socio-legal theory of inter-cultural transmission of legal knowledge and general theory of copying foreign laws.