Lecture: Jason X. Yu April 4, 2005

Jason X. Yu, a Ph.D. candidate in law at the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada, will give a talk titled ?Legal Pluralism in China: Historical Legacy and Contemporary Implications? at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, April 4 at Carleton College?s Leighton Hall, Room 305. The event, sponsored by Carleton?s Asian studies department, is free and open to the public.

Yu?s talk will shed light on the complexities of China?s legal systems and challenge some dominant Western discourses of legal culture in China, through a critical review of legal pluralism and its current implications for the country. There have long been diverse legal systems among China?s 55 ethnic groups, and interactions between different legal orders have characterized the landscape of law on the country?s cultural frontiers. Moreover, the origins of China?s modern state laws are pluralistic. The lecture will cover some of the sources of China?s legal pluralism, including the historical heritage of statutory laws from Tibet, Inner Mongolia and those of other indigenous groups; customary laws and their co-existence and interactions with state legal systems; and foreign and native origins of China?s modern state laws.

Yu?s research interests include legal anthropology, intellectual property rights, cultural property rights and indigenous knowledge protection and information policy, with a geographical focus on China and Canada.

For more information and disability accommodations, call Jill Tollefson in Carleton?s Asian studies department at (507) 646-4232.