“Asian Legal Revivals makes an innovative and significant contribution to the field of law and society scholarship. It is empirically ambitious, combining attention to detail in the study of individual nations with a deep understanding of the ways in which former colonial powers shaped law, lawyers, and politics in this part of the world, as well as the ways in which they were later shaped by U.S. geopolitical and economic interests. This book and its largeness of understanding and exceptional vision will establish a new benchmark and will quickly become essential reading.”

Carol A. G. Jones, visiting fellow, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong

“Well written in a clear and engaging style, Asian Legal Revivals is a timely, original, and engaging contribution to legal studies. Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth offer a rich and compelling account of the role of lawyers as both servants to—and sometimes overseers of—emerging nation-states. By telling the story of the revival of law in postcolonial Asia, the authors signal a collective awakening to the importance of the reemergence of the Asian legal field—as an industry, as a political enterprise, and as a tool for reshaping governance. Employing a wide range of new scholarly accounts of the countries in focus and including a pathbreaking amount of interview data, this book will certainly attract attention from scholars and graduate students in sociolegal studies and political science throughout the world, and it will be read widely by legal scholars and practitioners in Asia and the United States.”

Veronica L. Taylor, Australian National University and Asian Law Center, University of Washington

“In Asian Legal Revivals, Yves Dezalay and Bryant Garth turn their powerful Bourdieuian analytic lens to a new region of the world. Their story traces how particular groups seek to advance law as a legitimating device, succeeding to various degrees in different Asian post-colonial contexts. Throughout, they emphasize the dual nature of law, the so-called ‘double game’ in which law both serves empire and facilitates resistance to it. . . . The book provides an important lens that helps make sense of distinct developments in particular times and places.”

Law and Society

“There is much in Asian Legal Revivals that is highly laudable. Until fairly recently, legal professionals in Asia have received far too little academic attention—notwithstanding the fact that India, for instance, now has the world’s second largest bar in absolute or that China’s bar, over the past three decades, has grown at a far faster clip than that of any other large nation. Asian Legal Revivals ambitiously speaks to this lacuna, exploring the colonial roots, subsequent development, and contemporary situation of the elite legal profession in Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, (South) Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.”

University of Toronto Law Journal