Date change: The Tobunken Seminar "Asiatic Imperial Constitutional Making – Legal Borrowings from the Ottomans by the Asiatic World," originally scheduled on July 28, has been postponed to August 4.
The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo will be hosting a lecture by Doctor Yakoob Ahmed (Istanbul University) on "Asiatic Imperial Constitutional Making – Legal Borrowings from the Ottomans by the Asiatic World."
The seminar will be held both in person and online. Please fill in the form and choose "online" or "in person." In-person participants (up to 15 people) will be accepted on a first come first served basis.
Date and time: August 4, 2022 (Thu) 15:30~17:00
Venue: Large meeting room (3rd floor), Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo／Zoom
Speaker: Yakoob Ahmed (Istanbul University/The University of Tokyo)
Title: Asiatic Imperial Constitutional Making – Legal Borrowings from the Ottomans by the Asiatic World
Moderator: Jun Akiba (Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia)
Registration form: https://forms.gle/5HwVRRnJvE8P8bEU8
(In-person participation: Open until the end of August 2; Online participation: Open until 15:00, August 4)
Abstract:
This presentation will examine how the Ottoman Empire’s discursive constitutional efforts influenced the Malaysian state of Johor, Meiji Japan and Qing China's attempts for their own indigenous constitutions. By examining these constitutional processes, inspecting the various moving Asian elites and monarchs – who travelled to each other’s nations, as well as surveying the multiple legal terminologies that were applied, one can deduce that there was space for modern Asian constitutions that needn’t be “Western”. These sovereign states were negotiating with the intervening of colonial law but at the same time consolidating their existence globally and locally through the framework of their own traditions. This included the role of the various Asian religions/traditions such as Islam, State-Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism in international law-making. For the Asian states mentioned, it is worth asking how they viewed the Ottomans. Did they see them as European, an alternative or alien? And how did they witness Ottoman constitutional efforts as a lesson for their own attempts towards constitutionalism? As a result, this presentation will ask how informative was “Ottoman modernity” and the Ottoman constitution as a possible alternative to the Western European models.
Contact: j-akiba[at]ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp