The Resurgence of Lay Adjudicatory Systems in East Asia

Abstract

A new historic stage has clearly begun. The Asian neo-colonies under U.S. military jurisdiction are finding an independent legal path to protect their citizens from abuse. And on May 27, 2010, the movement at last was launched with the Japanese citizen’s lay court in Okinawa, finding the U.S. soldier guilty of robbery and bodily injuries to a cab driver and sentencing him to three to four years in a Japanese prison.

There will be more American military defendants subject to this judicial process, as lay adjudication begins to play an important role in placing the burden of responsibility on military personnel’s activities -- functioning as effective judicial oversight of the actions and conduct of American military personnel in Okinawa and other parts of the world still hosting substantial U.S. military installations.