In contrast to the adversarial legalism of the US, Japan and South Korea have historically had informal, cooperative, and bureaucratic approaches to law and regulation. Yet, in the new millennium, we have seen more formal rules and enforcement mechanisms, including through the courts, in both countries. Celeste Arrington argues that existing explanations focused on top-down strategies led by politicians overlook how activists and lawyers are creating bottom-up pressure for more legalistic modes of governance. To demonstrate these developments, she looks at tightening smoking restrictions in the two countries which have moved “from manners to rules" (manā kara rūru e). This talk examines domestic reforms that advocates won by disseminating high-quality research about policy instruments, using litigation to expose weaknesses in existing laws, reframing the problem of secondhand smoke, and leveraging transnational and domestic networks. This paper contributes to broader scholarship on varieties of legalism, policy diffusion, and the judicialization of politics.

Celeste Arrington (PhD, UC Berkeley) is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University. Her research interests include law and social change, comparative policy processes, and transnational advocacy. Her first book was Accidental Activists: Victim Movements and Government Accountability in Japan and South Korea (Cornell, 2016). She has published articles in Comparative Political Studies, Law & Society Review, Journal of East Asian Studies, Law & Policy, Asian Survey, and elsewhere. She co-edited Rights Claiming in South Korea with Patricia Goedde (Cambridge, 2021). Her current book analyzes the legalistic turn in Korean and Japanese governance regarding tobacco control and disability rights.