Marie Seong-Hak Kim

Marie Seong-Hak Kim
Born
Kim Seong-Hak (김성학)

1958
Seoul, South Korea
Academic background
Alma mater
Doctoral advisorJames D. Tracy and Paul W. Bamford
Academic work
DisciplineLegal history
Sub-discipline
Main interestsComparative Legal History

Marie Seong-Hak Kim (Korean: 김성학; born 1958) is a historian and jurist. She is known for her work of comparing European and East Asian legal history, with emphasis on the sources of law, legal theories, and court practices.[1]

Early life and education

Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her father, Kim Yun-haeng [ko], was a justice of the Supreme Court of Korea from 1973 through 1980.[2][3] She graduated from Ewha Woman's University in Seoul.[1] She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, where she worked under Paul W. Bamford and James D. Tracy.[4] She also earned her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Scholarship

Kim's Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History (2012) was the first study that comprehensively examined Korean legal history in comparison with European legal history, with particular focus on customary law.[5] A reviewer remarked that the book was far more than a presentation on Korean law and that it instead provided a “more general reflection on the development of customary law in the colonial context”.[6] It demonstrated, as observed by another reviewer, that “there is more than one way of approaching the role of law in the construction of empire (and of empire in the construction of law)”.[7] Her book revised the dominant view in historiography that premodern Korea had a system of private law in the form of customary law.[8] Kim credited Jérôme Bourgon's work in Chinese law for this insight.[9][10] She has argued that the concept of custom in the legal meaning of the term in East Asia was constructed by the Meiji legal elites in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as they tried to facilitate the transplant of European civil law to Japan.[11] This imported notion of custom as law spread to China and Korea, serving as an intermediary regime between tradition and the demands of modern civil law.[12] Japanese law had profound influence throughout East Asia, in particular in Korea which was a Japanese colony (1910 – 1945).[13]

Kim's Constitutional Transition and the Travail of Judges: The Courts of South Korea (2019) was a study of the evolution of the judicial process and jurisprudence in modern South Korea, seen against the backdrop of the country's political and constitutional vicissitudes.[14][15] This work was also comparative in its core, contextualizing constitutional authoritarianism in the twentieth century, including Weimar Germany and Latin America.[16] Her investigation into and interpretation of judicial travails in the 1970s under the Yusin Constitution brought “the South Korean case into the general discussions of authoritarian legalism and of transitional justice taking place around the world”.[17]

Originally trained as a sixteenth-century French historian,[18] Kim has continued writing on French legal history.[19][20][21] Her 2010 article on Michel de L’Hôpital, chancellor of France from 1560 through 1568 during the French Religious Wars, and early modern French law was the subject of a LHR Forum in Law and History Review.[22][23]

A central conceptual framework in her research is the role of customary law in the formation of modern states.[24] "Kim relies on H. Patrick Glenn’s (1940–2014) evolutionary stages of custom in Europe: capture, reconstruction and marginalisation”[25] and has applied them to her analysis of East Asian law, showing “how a comparative legal historical approach can be executed in a fruitful manner and, moreover, how it can help to cross not only the confines of time and space but also the confines of legal cultures."[26] She has argued that the codification of customs was a recurring pattern in the process of receiving outside law, as witnessed across history from medieval France (receiving Roman law) to Meiji Japan (embracing European civil law) to colonial scenes (transplanting metropolitan law).[27][28] Her book, Custom, Law, and Monarchy: A Legal History of Early Modern France (2021), reinforced the foundation of her work in customary law.

Kim's political and jurisprudential approach to law has been contrasted to that of more culturally attuned historians.[7] Described as “primarily a lawyer's history”,[17] her writings focusing on politics and state legal institutions depart from the dominant trend, of late, of social and cultural history of law. Her scholarship has been noted as “a comparative law study that is unique for its kind to date.”[29] Alan Watson stated in 2012 that Kim's book, Law and Custom in Korea, “is the best law book I have read in several years.”[30]

Fellowships and grants

She was a Fellow at several research institutes in Europe, including the Collegium de Lyon (2011–2012),[31] the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (2013–2014),[32] the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (EURIAS and Marie Curie Fellow of the European Union) (2016–2017),[33] and Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Recht als Kultur" at the University of Bonn (2019).[34][35] She is the recipient of the Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant, the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship,[36] and the Social Science Research Council Abe Fellowship[37]

Personal life

Kim lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is married and has two sons.[4] She is a member of the Minnesota Bar.[1]

Works

Monographs

  • Custom, Law, and Monarchy: A Legal History of Early Modern France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, 304 pages). ISBN 9780192845498
  • Constitutional Transition and the Travail of Judges: The Courts of South Korea (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, 388 pages). ISBN 9781108474894
  • Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, 384 pages). ISBN 9781107006973
  • Michel de L'Hôpital: the Vision of a Reformist Chancellor during the French Religious Wars (Kirksville: Truman State University Press, Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies, vol. 36, 1997, 216 pages). ISBN 0940474387

Edited volume

  • The Spirit of Korean Law: Korean Legal History in Context (Leiden: Brill | Nijhoff, 2016, 279 pages). ISBN 9789004290778

References

  1. ^ a b c "Marie Kim". web.stcloudstate.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  2. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2019). "Acknowledgments". Constitutional Transition and the Travail of Judges: The Courts of South Korea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. xi. ISBN 978-1-108-62843-3. OCLC 1105988915.
  3. ^ Kim, Seong-Hak (1997). "Dedication page". Michel de L'Hôpital : The Vision of a Reformist Chancellor During the French Religious Wars. Kirksville, Mo.: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers. ISBN 0-940474-38-7. OCLC 36284117.
  4. ^ a b Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2021). "Acknowledgments". Custom, Law, and Monarchy: A Legal History of Early Modern France. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. vii. ISBN 978-0-19-193771-2. OCLC 1257402611.
  5. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2012). Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-139-04763-0. OCLC 817925445.
  6. ^ "...une réflexion plus générale sur l’elaboration d’un droit coutumier en contexte colonial." Constant, Frédéric (2014). "Marie Seong-Hak Kim. Law and custom in Korea : comparative legal history, 2012 [compte-rendu]". Revue internationale de droit comparé (in French). 66 (4): 1134.
  7. ^ a b Prest, Wilfrid (2017). "Review of Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History". Law&history (Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society). 4 (1): 176.
  8. ^ Chen, Lei (2013). "Marie Seong-Hak Kim, Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History". Comparative Legal History. 1 (2): 277. doi:10.5235/2049677X.1.2.277. ISSN 2049-677X. S2CID 152588923.
  9. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2012). "Acknowledgment". Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. xiii. ISBN 978-1-139-04763-0. OCLC 817925445.
  10. ^ See Bourgon, Jérôme “ La Coutume et le droit en Chine à la fin de l’empire.” Annales HSS 54 (1999): pp. 1073 –1107.
  11. ^ Rausch, Franklin (2014). "Review of Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History, by Marie Seong-hak Kim". Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies. 14 (2): 286. doi:10.21866/esjeas.2014.14.2.009.
  12. ^ See, Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2020). "Rites and Rights: Lineage Property and Law in Korea". L'Atelier du CRH (22). doi:10.4000/acrh.11667. S2CID 230632997. And, Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2007). "Law and Custom under the Chosŏn Dynasty and Colonial Korea: A Comparative Perspective". Journal of Asian Studies. 66 (4): 1067–1097. doi:10.1017/S0021911807001295.
  13. ^ See, Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2009-01-01). "Customary Law and Colonial Jurisprudence in Korea". American Journal of Comparative Law. 57 (1): 205–248. doi:10.5131/ajcl.2008.0006.Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2008). "比較史的側面からみた梅謙次郎の法思想と朝鮮における民法典構想の意義" [Ume Kenjiro's Legal Thought and Legislative Vision: Some Comparative Reflections]. 東洋文化硏究 Tōyō Bunka Kenkyū (in Japanese). 10: 99–136. And, Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2009). "日本統治下における韓國の慣習法の構成" [The Construction of Korean Customary Law under Japanese Rule]. 東洋文化硏究 Tōyō Bunka Kenkyū (in Japanese). 11: 179–193.
  14. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2019). Constitutional transition and the travail of judges : the courts of South Korea. Cambridge. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-108-62843-3. OCLC 1105988915.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  15. ^ See also, Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2015). "Travails of Judges: Courts and Constitutional Authoritarianism in South Korea". American Journal of Comparative Law. 63 (3): 601–654. doi:10.5131/AJCL.2015.0018. And, Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2013). "Constitutional Jurisprudence and the Rule of Law: Revisiting the Courts in Yusin Korea (1972-1980)". Hague Journal on the Rule of Law. 5 (02): 178–203. doi:10.1017/S187640451200111X. ISSN 1876-4045
  16. ^ Ohnesorge, John (2021-11-08). "Constitutional Transition and the Travail of Judges: The Courts of South Korea". The American Journal of Comparative Law. 69 (2): 388. doi:10.1093/ajcl/avab008. ISSN 0002-919X.
  17. ^ a b Ohnesorge, John (2021-11-08). "Constitutional Transition and the Travail of Judges: The Courts of South Korea". American Journal of Comparative Law. 69 (2): 389. doi:10.1093/ajcl/avab008. ISSN 0002-919X.
  18. ^ Wolfe, Michael (2003). "Review of Thierry Waneggelen, Ed., De Michel de L'Hospital à l'Édit de Nantes. Politique et religion face aux Églises" (PDF). H-France Review. 3: 317.
  19. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2004). "Christophe de Thou et la réformation des coutumes: L'esprit de réforme juridique au XVIe siècle". Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis / Revue d'Histoire du Droit / The Legal History Review (in French). 72 (1–2): 91–102. doi:10.1163/157181904323055826. ISSN 0040-7585.
  20. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2007). "Custom, Community, and the Crown: Lawyers and the Reordering of French Customary Law". In Parker, Charles H.; Bentley, Jerry H. (eds.). Between the Middle Ages and modernity : individual and community in the early modern world. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 169–186. ISBN 978-0-7425-5309-5. OCLC 68799422.
  21. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2018). "Michel de L'Hôpital and Christophe de Thou: Two Perceptions of Royal Justice during the French Religious Wars". In Modéer, Kjell Å.; Sunnqvist, Martin (eds.). Suum cuique tribuere: legal contexts, judicial archetypes and deep-structures regarding courts of appeal and judiciaries from early modern to late modern Europe. Stockholm: Institutet för rättshistorisk. ISBN 978-91-86645-11-3. OCLC 1054395937.
  22. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2010). "Civil Law and Civil War: Michel de L'Hôpital and the Ideals of Legal Unification in Sixteenth-Century France". Law and History Review. 28 (3): 791–826. doi:10.1017/S0738248010000635. ISSN 0738-2480. S2CID 143507874.
  23. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2010). "L'Hôpital's Laws". Law and History Review. 28 (3): 843–848. doi:10.1017/S0738248010000660. ISSN 0738-2480. S2CID 144784490.
  24. ^ Prest, Wilfrid (2017). "Review of Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History". Law&history (Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society). 4: 174.
  25. ^ Husa, Jaakko (2020). "Seeking a disciplinary identity – the case of comparative legal history: A review of Comparative Legal History, edited by Olivier Moréteau, Aniceto Masferrer and Kjell A Modéer, Edward Elgar, 2019". Comparative Legal History. 8 (2): 183. doi:10.1080/2049677X.2020.1830491. hdl:10138/324841. ISSN 2049-677X. S2CID 226321562.
  26. ^ Husa, Jaakko (2020). "Seeking a disciplinary identity – the case of comparative legal history: A review of Comparative Legal History, edited by Olivier Moréteau, Aniceto Masferrer and Kjell Å Modéer, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019". Comparative Legal History. 8 (2): 184. doi:10.1080/2049677X.2020.1830491. hdl:10138/324841. ISSN 2049-677X. S2CID 226321562.
  27. ^ Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (2016). "Can There Be Good Colonial Law: Korean Law and Jurisprudence under Japanese Rule revisited". In Kim, Marie Seong-Hak (ed.). The Spirit of Korean Law : Korean Legal History in Context. Leiden: Brill | Nijhoff. pp. 129–154. ISBN 978-90-04-30601-1. OCLC 932277090.
  28. ^ "A door opener? Custom as a Source of Law". www.lhlt.mpg.de. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  29. ^ "Das Ergebnis ist eine rechtsvergleichende Studie, die in ihrer Art bislang einzigartig ist." Förster, Christian (2015). "Review of Marie Seong-Hak Kim, Law and Custom in Korea: Comparative Legal History,". Zeitschrift für Japanisches Recht (in German). 20 (40): 299. "I recommend the book not only to those interested in Korea but also to Japanese lawyers so that they can deal with, instead of the reception of German legal transplants, the historically based, but unchanged, ongoing effects of Japanese law on their closest neighbors".
  30. ^ "Law and Custom in Korea | East Asian history | Reviews & endorsements". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  31. ^ "COLLEGIUM-LYON - MME Marie Seong-Hak KIM". COLLEGIUM-LYON (in French). Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  32. ^ "Kim, Marie". NIAS. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  33. ^ "Prof. Dr. Marie Seong-Hak Kim — Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies – FRIAS". www.frias.uni-freiburg.de. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  34. ^ "Prof. Dr. Marie Seong-Hak Kim - Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Recht als Kultur"". www.recht-als-kultur.de. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  35. ^ Marie Seong-Hak Kim: Rites and Rights: Lineage Property and Law in Korea, 15 October 2019, retrieved 2021-11-23
  36. ^ "NEH grant details: Law and Custom in Korea". securegrants.neh.gov. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  37. ^ "Marie Kim". Social Science Research Council (SSRC). Retrieved 2021-12-10.