Law and Society in East Asia: a Duo of Articles by Celeste Arrington

In two months’ time, Elliott School Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Celeste Arrington has published two cutting-edge articles in top-flight journals. Featured in the February 2019 issue of Comparative Political Studies, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Pseudonymity and Participation in Legal Mobilization,” explores how rules regarding privacy shape individuals’ decisions about sustained collective action via the courts. Critically, Arrington’s comparative analysis of litigation and court-supervised privacy protections in Japan and Korea reveals how seemingly technical aspects of law can have outsized political consequences. Meanwhile, Arrington's March 2019 Law & Society Review article, “The Mechanisms behind Litigation’s ‘Radiating Effects’: Historical Grievances against Japan,” investigates what drives litigation’s influence on social movements, irrespective of formal judicial decisions. Analyzing factors such as attribution of similarity, brokerage, issue dramatization, political cover, and intergroup discussions, the article expertly dissects the “radiating effects” and offers important conclusions for the ultimate impact of postwar compensation lawsuits in East Asia. For more of Professor Arrington’s work, check out her 2016 book: Accidental Activists: Victim Movements and Government Accountability in Japan and South Korea.