Biographical Information
Hiroshi Fukurai, Professor of Legal Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is currently the President of the Asian Law and Society Association (ALSA). He is specialized in lay adjudication, indigenous approaches to international law, and Asian law and politics.
He is the author, or editor, of 10 books and over 100 articles, including law reviews, book chapters, op-ed pieces, and magazine articles. His books include Japan and Civil Jury Trials: The Convergence of Forces (2015); East Asia’s Renewed Respect for the Rule of Law in the 21st Century (2015); Nuclear Tsunami: Japanese Government and American Role in Fukushima Disaster (2015); Race in the Jury Box: Affirmative Action in Jury Selection (2003); Anatomy of the McMartin Child Molestation Case (2001); Race and the Jury: Racial Disenfranchisement and the Search for Justice (1993, Gustavus Meyers Human Rights Award); and Common Destiny: Japan and the U.S. in the Global Age (1990).
Professor Fukurai is the Book Review Editor of the Asian Journal of Law and Society, and on the editorial board of the Asian Journal of Law and Society and the International Journal of Political Science and Diplomacy.
Current projects include: (1) Civic participation in civil trials in a post-Fukushima nuclear disaster era; (2) Historical analysis of jury trial in Okinawa, Japan under the U.S. military occupation in the 1960s and 1970s, and (3) Prosecution Review Commissions (i.e., Japan’s grand jury system) and its impact on Japan’s democratization.
He is completing a book, Original Nation Approaches to “Inter-National” Law (ONAIL): Indigenous Communities, Ethnic Minorities, and the Quest for Autonomy (2020), in which he tried to advance the theory of international law, beyond the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) or other variant theories, by offering the perspective that places indigenous nations and peoples at the geopolitical analytic core of interpreting the geography, history, politics and the role of international law.
Research Interests
Citizen participation in the justice system, international law and politics, race and inequality, East Asian law and politics, military and justice, social movements, environmental justice, indigenous knowledge, and advanced quantitative methods
Previous Education/Training
Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Riverside
M.A., Sociology, University of California, Riverside
B.A., Sociology, California State University Fullerton
Certificate in Metallurgical Engineering, National College of Technology, Miyagi, Japan
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