Vision of Postcolonial Feminist Jurisprudence in Korea: Seen from the Family-Head System in Family Law

The family-head system as inscribed in the Family Law has had enormous significance since the system regulates virtually every legal relation within the family, for instance, through designating a amily-head usually an adult-male, or the eldest son of the previous family-head. Through this simple constellation, the institution has exerted strong and complex social effects: it defines the boundary of the family, endows a kind of atural rightto be the head to a family to every adult male in Korea, while it also naturalizes the inferior status as emberto almost every adult woman in Korea. Although the right of family-head was often conceived as a ymbolicone rather than a substantive one, the status of a family-head becomes real enough as it means headship in the family document, i.e. family register, which is the identification system of Korean people as well. The history of family law in Korea is a history of women movements. This article tries to interpret the meaning of this change within the history of legal feminism in Korea. It will examine the critical articles that treat the women in the family in discriminatory way, and presents how the separate articles interrelate with each other as a system. Based upon this examination, it will introduce the constitutional case regarding this family-head system. From the analysis of the constitutional case, the essay will discuss the question of raditionand colonialism. This will be a critical effort for not only interpreting legal history but also envisioning future change

The Social Networks of Korean Female Adult Learners in a Middle School

This study investigates the social networks of Korean female adult learners in middle school through social network analysis and examines the development of these networks by interviewing the main actors involved

\u3ci\u3eAmici Curiae\u3c/i\u3e Observations on Sexual- and Gender-Based Crimes, Particularly Sexual Slavery, and on Cumulative Convictions Pursuant to Rule 103 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence

Sexual slavery is not a “form” of enslavement; rather, all acts of a sexual nature, including control over sexuality, sexual integrity and sexual and reproductive autonomy, constitute indicia of the exercise of powers of ownership of enslavement in all its forms. Consequently, enslavement as a crime against humanity is not “in the abstract entirely encompassed within sexual slavery.” To avoid entering cumulative convictions for separately enumerated crimes that do not each have a distinct element from the other, and to avoid a continuation of a discriminatory application of the law, amici suggest that, in the interests of justice, the Appeals Chamber reverse the Ongwen Trial Judgment on this point and enter convictions for enslavement rather than sexual slavery under crimes against humanity because conduct criminalised under sexual slavery constitutes criminal conduct already covered by enslavement. Amici believe that this would not be detrimental to Dominic Ongwen

The First Structure–Activity Relationship Studies for Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs

Over the past decade, two independent technologies have emerged and been widely adopted by the neuroscience community for remotely controlling neuronal activity: optogenetics which utilize engineered channelrhodopsin and other opsins, and chemogenetics which utilize engineered G protein-coupled receptors (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs)) and other orthologous ligand–receptor pairs. Using directed molecular evolution, two types of DREADDs derived from human muscarinic acetylcholine receptors have been developed: hM3Dq which activates neuronal firing, and hM4Di which inhibits neuronal firing. Importantly, these DREADDs were not activated by the native ligand acetylcholine (ACh), but selectively activated by clozapine N-oxide (CNO), a pharmacologically inert ligand. CNO has been used extensively in rodent models to activate DREADDs, and although CNO is not subject to significant metabolic transformation in mice, a small fraction of CNO is apparently metabolized to clozapine in humans and guinea pigs, lessening the translational potential of DREADDs. To effectively translate the DREADD technology, the next generation of DREADD agonists are needed and a thorough understanding of structure–activity relationships (SARs) of DREADDs is required for developing such ligands. We therefore conducted the first SAR studies of hM3Dq. We explored multiple regions of the scaffold represented by CNO, identified interesting SAR trends, and discovered several compounds that are very potent hM3Dq agonists but do not activate the native human M3 receptor (hM3). We also discovered that the approved drug perlapine is a novel hM3Dq agonist with >10 000-fold selectivity for hM3Dq over hM3

Le recours constitutionnel contre le délit d’avortement et la voix des femmes : une étude des perceptions de l’expérience de l’avortement

Cette étude est un examen critique de la décision constitutionnelle de 2012 concernant l’article 270 (Avortement réalisé par un médecin ou assimilé) du code pénal sud-coréen. Fondée sur une double approche légale et sociologique, elle analyse les résultats d’une enquête empirique sur les expériences et perceptions féminines de l’avortement. Ce faisant, nous cherchons à faire entendre la voix des femmes, de surcroît dans un contexte où la Cour constitutionnelle peine à la reconnaître ou à l’accepter, tout particulièrement quand il s’agit d’avortement. La première partie de notre article présente la situation de l’avortement en Corée du Sud, plus précisément son statut légal et sa réalité sociale. Bien que la plupart des cas d’avortement soient illégaux au regard de la loi, les enquêtes montrent que cette pratique est extrêmement courante en Corée du Sud. Est-ce que cela signifie que les femmes coréennes bénéficient d’un droit à l’avortement dans la pratique ? Comment pouvons-nous interpréter ce phénomène en tant que chercheuses féministes en sociologie du droit ? La seconde partie de notre texte privilégie une approche qualitative pour analyser le résultat de notre enquête. Elle explore comment les femmes parlent de leur expérience de l’avortement et comment celle-ci affecte leurs relations avec les autres, en particulier avec leur partenaire masculin. Elle montre également comment cette expérience influence la perception qu’ont les femmes des relations sexuelles ainsi que leur subjectivité sexuelle. Cet article soutient que si les décideurs politiques reconnaissent qu’aucune contraception n’est parfaitement fiable pour prévenir des grossesses non désirées, alors ils doivent aussi accepter les besoins qui en découlent pour les femmes. Il défend également l’idée qu’en Corée, l’avortement n’est pas seulement lié aux revendications d’autonomie des femmes : il correspond aussi à un besoin désespéré.This paper is a critical review of the Constitutional decision held in 2012 regarding Article 270 [Abortion by the Medical Personnel] of the South Korean Criminal Code. Grounded on the “law and society” approach, our study investigates the result of an empirical survey on women’s experiences and perceptions of abortion. In this way, we aim at making the women’s voices heard, especially in a context where the Constitutional Court does not seem to acknowledge it, even when it comes to abortion. The first part of our article presents the main aspects of abortion in South Korea and focuses on its legal status and social reality. Although most cases of abortion are illegal according to the law, surveys show that this practice is extremely common in South Korea. Does it mean that, in practice, Korean women benefit from a right to abortion? As feminist socio-legal scholars, how are we to understand this phenomenon? The second part of this paper uses a qualitative approach to analyze the result of our survey. It explores how women express their experience of abortion and how it affects their relations with others, in particular with their male partner. It also shows how this experience affects women’s perception of sexual relationships as well as their sexual subjectivity. This paper argues that if policy makers acknowledge that no contraception can perfectly prevent unwanted pregnancy, then they also have to accept the consequent needs of women. It also advocates that abortion in Korea is not only related to women’s claim for autonomy, but can also be a desperate necessity

A Journey of Family Law Reform in Korea: Tradition, Equality, and Social Change

This article reviews fifty years of history of family law reform in Korea with particular emphasis on the most recent and a large-scale revision in March 2005. For this purpose, this article overviews three previous revisions in 1962, 1977, and 1989 from a feminist point of view. History of family law has been tantamount to the history of feminist legal movements, and the feminist legal movements for family law mark the longest history in the legal feminism in Korea. The essay then discusses the revision in 2005, its main bodies, political and social situation. As seen, diverse social sectors of citizens movements were mobilized and public sectors such as legislature, administration, and Constitutional Court made this huge change in law, particularly deletion of the family-head system possible. It also discusses the social environment such as rapid changes in birth rate, numbers of family members, rates of divorce and remarriage in South Korea that shaped social context of the legal change. Based upon this analysis, the essay discusses several points about law and society seen through the family law and revision movement. It discusses largely three issues: tradition and colonialism embedded in the law; states concern on the normalization of the family, nature of feminism(s) emerging in the process of revision of the law. Overall, the process of family law revision reveals the uniqueness of feminism and feminist jurisprudence in Korea, and its possibility to be a viewpoint to understand laws history as well as history through the law