From Georg Simmel’s relational sociology to Michel Foucault’s concept of “relational power”, from Wesley Hohfeld’s rights as a bundle of relations schema to Ian Macneil’s relational contract theory, the said “relational law” has emerged as a critical field in socio-legal studies. Indeed, without human interactions and the relationships they forge, it would be impossible to comprehend or articulate the order of law and society. The relations as the form of communication can also be understood as the Minimum Unit of societies. In Asia, relationships hold particular and profound significance. For instance, China is described as a “relationship (guanxi)-centric society”, Japan’s informal dispute resolution tends to favor relational approaches, Southeast Asian business practices are characterized by “relational capitalism”, and so forth. In the digital age, virtual spaces form interconnected networks, big data derives value from its relationality, and artificial intelligence, especially Generative AI transforms individualism into a typified collectivism, and people have to live in interactions where the “I” inevitably manifests as part of a “we”. The convergence of traditional and digital network structures amplifies relational cultures and even fosters the emergence of a relational civilization. 

Against this backdrop, legal studies are inevitably undergoing a relational turn, necessitating paradigm shifts in knowledge production. By situating individuals within relational interactions and centering “relationality” as a key lens for describing, understanding, interpreting, and governing society, the relational law provides a theoretical framework and methodological toolkit for reimagining the principles of order in Asia. It also holds significant implications for advancing socio-legal studies. To this end, the Asian Journal of Law and Society plans to curate a special issue themed “Relational Turn in Law: Practices and Implications in Asia” and hereby invites submissions. 

We welcome papers addressing, but not limited to the following topics:  

1. Global Relational Governance and Reconstructing Asian Order in the Context of Legal Pluralism 
2. Relational Perspectives on Asian Legal Cultures: Tradition and Innovation 
3. Deepening Relational Sociology: Applications, Reflections, and Insights in Asian Law 
4. Relational Rights and Relational Legal Consciousness in Asian Contexts 
5. Relational Dispute Resolution Mechanisms and Asian Legal Practices 
6. Law-Society Interactions through the Lens of Game Theory 
7. Social Network Analysis as a Method for Empirical Legal Studies 
8. Governance of Asian Digital Spaces and Relational Order in the Web3 Era 
9. Relationality, Communication Protocols and Co-evolutional AI (CAI) in the Human-Machine Coexistence Age  
10. Networked Societies and Cyberculture in the 21st Century

Authors are invited to submit an abstract of 400 words by August 31, 2025. Abstracts should be submitted via email to the Administrative Editor (email: ajlseditors@sjtu.edu.cn). The abstract should include the author’s name, affiliation, and email address. Please indicate in the e-mail subject line that this is the submission of the abstract for this special issue. Manuscripts that have been published or accepted for publication will not be considered.

 

Notification of acceptance of abstracts will be sent by October 31, 2025. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full manuscript by the end of February 2026. All submitted manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review. Final decisions on manuscripts will be communicated to authors by May 31, 2026.

 

Editor-in-Chief:

Professor Weidong Ji, China Institute for Socio-Legal Studies, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

 

For further information, please contact the Administrative Editor or the Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Law and Society. We look forward to receiving your submissions.