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John Owen Haley

William R. Orthwein Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus

Professor John Haley is one of the nation’s outstanding international and comparative law scholars and is widely credited with having popularized Japanese legal studies. His numerous scholarly works span issues ranging from international trade policy and comparative law to Japanese land-use law, Japanese and East Asian business transactions, and Japanese law and contemporary society. He has taught and lectured internationally, including at Aoyama Gakuin University, Kobe University, and Tohoku University in Japan, and at Tubingen University in Germany. The author or editor of nine books and monographs, Professor Haley’s book, Authority Without Power: Law and the Japanese Paradox, and his article, “The Myth of the Reluctant Litigant,” are considered leading works in the field. His most recent book, Antitrust in Germany and Japan: The First Fifty Years, 1947-1998, is the first comparative study of German and Japanese antitrust law in English. Among his many accolades, he recently received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon from His Majesty the Emperor of Japan in recognition of his contributions to friendship between Japan and the United States.

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  • Education
    • A.B., Princeton University, 1964
    • LL.B., Yale University, 1969
    • LL.M., University of Washington, 1971
  • Courses
    • Comparative Law: Europe, Latin America, and East Asia
    • Contracts; Japanese Law
    • Transnational Litigation
  • Publications

    SSRN Authors Page:

    Books and Monographs

    • Law’s Political Foundations: Rivers, Rifles, Rice, and Religion (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016).
    • Comparative Law: The Contemporary Civil Law Tradition in Europe, Latin America, and East Asia, vol. 2, with John Henry Merryman and David  S. Clark (Lexis/Nexis Casebook series, 2015), new edition of The Civil Law Tradition: Europe, Latin America and East Asia (Charlottesville: Michie Company,1994).
    • Legal Innovations in Asia: Judicial Lawmaking and the Influence of Comparative Law (Cheltenham, UK and Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014), edited with Toshiko Takenaka.
    • Fundamentals of Transnational Litigation: The United States, Canada, Japan, and the European Union (New Providence, N.J.: LexisNexis, 2012, 2nd ed. 2014).
    • The Spirit of Japanese Law, (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, paperback ed. 2006)

    Articles and Essays

    • “Rivers and Rice: What Lawyers and Legal Historians Should Know about Medieval Japan”, 36 The Journal of Japanese Studies  (No. 2, 2010) [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Public Prosecution in Japan,” Oxford Handbooks Online (December 2015), available at www.oxfordhandbooks.com.
    • “Judicial Law-making and the Creation of Legal Norms in Japan: A Dialogue,” with Daniel H. Foote, in J. Haley and T. Takenaka, eds., Legal Innovations in Asia: Judicial Law-Making and Influence of Comparative Law (Cheltenham, UK and Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014).
    • “The Role of Courts in “‘Making’ Law in Japan: The Communitarian Conservatism of Japanese Judges,” 22 Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal 491 (2013).
    • “Constitutional Adjudication in Japan: Context, Structures, and Values,” 88 Washington University Law Review 1467 (2011).
    • “Introduction – Beyond Retribution: An Integrated Approach to Restorative Justice,”
    • 36 Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 1 (2011).
    • “The Evolution of Law: Political Foundations of Private Law in Medieval Europe and Japan,” in Debin Ma; J.L. van Zanden (Jan Luiten), eds., Law and Long-term  Economic Change: A Eurasian Perspective (Stanford Economics and Finance, 2011), pp. 19-45.
    • “Why Study Japanese Law?,” 58 The American Journal of Comparative Law 1 (2010). [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Foundations of Governance and Law: An Essay on Law’s Evolution in Colonial Spanish America,” Díkaion, ISSN 0120-8942, Año 23 – Núm. 18 – 163-203 – Chía, Colombia- Diciembre 2009 [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Rethinking Contract Practice and Law in Japan,” 1 Journal of East Asia and International Law 47 (2008). [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “The Japanese Judiciary: Maintaining Integrity, Autonomy and Public Trust,” in Daniel H. Foote, ed., Law in Japan: A Turning Point, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007). [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Apology and Pardon,” David S. Clark, ed., Encyclopedia of Law and Society: American and Global Perspectives (Thousand Oaks, London, & New Delhi, Sage Publications, 2007).
    • “Law and Culture in China and Japan: A Framework for Analysis,” 27 Michigan Journal of International Law 895 (2006).
    • “The Civil, Criminal and Disciplinary Liability of Judges,” 54 (Supplement) American Journal of Comparative Law 281 (2006).
    • “Judicial Reform: Conflicting Aims and Imperfect Models,” 5 Washington University Global  Studies Law Review 81 (2006). 
    • “Waging War: Japan’s Constitutional Constraints,” 14 Constitutional Forum Constitutionnel 18 (No. 2, 2005). [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Japanese Perspectives, Autonomous Firms, and the Aesthetic Function of Law,” in K.L. Hopt, E. Wymeersch, H. Kanda, and H. Baum (eds), Corporate Governance in Context: Corporations, States and Markets in Europe, Japan, and the United States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 205-214.
    • “Heisei Renewal or Heisei Transformation: Are Legal reforms Really Changing Japan? 10 Journal of Japanese Law (Zeitschrift für Japanisches Recht) 5 (No. 19, 2005). [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Litigation in Japan: A New Look at Old Problems,” 10 Willamette Journal of Int’l L and Dispute Resolution. 121 (2002). [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “The Adjudicatory Jurisdiction of Japanese Courts in Transnational Litigation,” in J.A.R. Nafziger & S.C. Symeonides, eds., Law and Justice in a Multistate World: Essays in Honor of Arthur T. von Mehren (Ardsley, NY, Transnational Publishers, Inc., 2002), pp. 705-719. [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Error, Irony and Convergence: A Comparative Study of the Origins and Development of Competition Policy in Postwar Germany and Japan, in Großfeld, Sack, M.J. Möllers, Drexl, Heinemann (eds.), Festschrift for Wolfgang Fikentscher (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck: 1998), pp. 886-918. [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Japan’s New Land and House Lease Law,” in J. Haley and K. Yamamura (eds.), Land Issues in Japan: A Policy Failure?, (Seattle: Society for Japanese Studies, 1992), pp. 149-174. [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Weak Law, Strong Competition, and Trade Barriers: Competitiveness as a Disincentive to Foreign Entry into Japanese Markets,” in K. Yamamura (ed.), Japan’s Economic Structure: Should it Change? (Seattle, Society for Japanese Studies, 1990) pp. 203-236. [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Mission to Manage:  The U.S. Forest Service as a Japanese Bureaucracy,” in K. Hayashi (ed.), The U.S.-Japanese Economic Relationship: Can it be Improved? (New York, New York University Press, 1989) pp. 196-225. [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “Toward a Reappraisal of Occupation Legal Reforms: Administrative Accountability,” in Fujukura (ed.), Eibeihô ronshû (Essays on Anglo-American Law) (Hideo Tanaka Festschrift) 543-567 (1987). [view in Adobe PDF]
    • “The Politics of Informal Justice: The Japanese Experience, 1922-1942,” in R. Abel (ed.), The Politics of Informal Justice, Vol. 2 (Academic Press) 125-147 (1982). [view in Adobe PDF]