Drugs and the Death Penalty in Asia (LAWS70415)

Throughout Asia the treatment of drug offences varies, although many countries retain the death penalty. Students will be asked to critically evaluate drug law, criminal procedure law and penalties in Asian jurisdictions selected from (but not limited to) China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

The subject’s approach is explicitly socio-legal. Students will interrogate regional primary sources and then investigate how the laws operate in practice, drawing upon identified practice and current research. There will be a strong emphasis on case studies of important judicial decisions from the countries selected. This subject is also comparative, asking students to incorporate and defend a comparative approach to their analysis.

The first part of the subject will be an introduction to relevant international regimes and the national regulatory and institutional frameworks for drugs law in each of the countries selected. The second part of the subject will comprise a series of studies of significant and/or high-profile case studies from the countries selected, in which the practical application of the regimes examined in the first half are investigated. A comparative approach will be applied throughout.

Principal topics include:

• Key approaches to socio-legal comparative legal studies in the 21st century
• Diverse approaches within Asia to the regulation of drugs, through detailed and nuanced examination of the relevant criminal and procedure laws, taking into account different legal systems, social, political and cultural traditions, structures and practices
• The role played by different legal institutions in the regulation of drugs offences regionally, including courts, police, prosecutors, defence lawyers, NGOS etc.
• The contribution made to the regulation of drugs and drugs-related offences by international regulatory frameworks
• The impacts of non-legal networks and institutions on the development, implementation and review of drugs laws in the region
• Divergent attitudes to the death penalty
• Drugs-law-related reforms arising from the comparisons
• The possibilities for convergence or harmonisation of drugs law in Asia.