Justice, Emotion, and Belonging: Legal Consciousness in a Taiwanese Family Conflict

Abstract

This case study of a family conflict in Taiwan explores how legal consciousness is emotionally driven, intersubjective, and dependent on relational factors that are deeply connected to an individual's perception of the self–other relationship and affinity therein. As the members of the Lee family negotiated emotionally on issues involving elder care and inheritance, their adoption of law was at times absent, at others influential, but always shaped by certain Chinese concepts such as zìjǐrén (自己人), which constitute the emotional complex of belonging in Taiwan. This cultural patterning identifies a person as included, accepted, and respected by the group and when in conflict, is the driving force behind a disputants' pursuit of an identity that places them on moral high ground as a form of justice. Rather than depending on rational decision making or legal norms, their legal consciousness was determined by the sense of self, rectitude, emotion, and subjectivity.

How parole boards judge remorse: Relational legal consciousness and the reproduction of carceral logic

“…Wang's 2019 case study of a Taiwanese family offers one example of how scholars investigating relational legal consciousness might think about emotion. Detailing how family members' emotional relationships and cultural commitments shaped their legal consciousness around issues of elder care and inheritance, Wang argues that a greater focus on emotionality is key to understanding legal consciousness: “The case study of the Lee family conflict… demonstrates that legal consciousness is dependent on emotions that are deeply connected to one's perception of the self‐other relationship, the level of affinity shared with others, and the life objectives of all those involved” (Wang, 2019, p. 784). While Wang's construction of relationality is somewhat general — to employ the distinction above, the legal consciousness Wang depicts is relational, but not second‐order — it illustrates the capacity of law and emotion scholarship as a conceptual lever for thinking in new ways about the co‐constitutive nature of legal consciousness.…”

“…Young (2014) and Headworth (2020) each examined opposite sides of the enforcement coin, looking at how the legal consciousness of enforcer/subject is influenced by each group's beliefs about the other group's legal consciousness. Abrego (2019) and Wang (2019) show the manifold relational ways that legal consciousness (specifically, understandings of citizenship in Abrego's analysis; disputes over eldercare and inheritance in Wang's) are produced and shaped within families. All of these scholars, as well as Chua and Engel (2019), have called for additional work focusing more systematically on legal consciousness's relational aspects.…”

Exploring Tendencies in Migrants’ Legal Consciousness Research and Uncovering Factors for Socio-Legal Integration

“…, exploited in the employment relationship (Blackstone et al, 2009;Kirk et al, 2017;Marshall, 2005), dedicated to family life-related aspects (De Hart & Besselsen, 2020;Liu, 2018;Wang, 2019) or education (Egorov & Umnyashova, 2017;Huang, 2016;Ma, 2018). The field of research in legal consciousness has also been well theoretically and methodologically grounded by profound scholars as Leisy J. Abrego, Simon Halliday, Lynette J. Chua, David M. Engel, Marc Hertogh and others who have represented narratives and theories ranging from North America to Europe.…”

Being One of Us: The Role of Mutual Recognition and Emotion in Shaping Legal Consciousness in a Taiwanese Neighbourhood Dispute

“…9 Engel & Munger, supra note 7; Clark (2007); Kirkland (2008). 10 Engel, supra note 4; Lamont & Molnár (2002); Wang (2019). 11 Auerbach (1983); Engel (2016); Hertogh (2018).…”