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Rules of the House offers a dynamic revisionist account of
the Japanese colonial rule of Korea (1910–1945) by examining
the roles of women in the civil courts. Challenging the dominant
view that women were victimized by the Japanese family laws and its
patriarchal biases, Sungyun Lim argues that Korean women had
to struggle equally against Korean patriarchal interests. Moreover,
women were not passive victims; instead, they proactively struggled
to expand their rights by participating in the Japanese colonial
legal system. In turn, the Japanese doctrine of promoting
progressive legal rights would prove advantageous to them.
Following female plaintiffs and their civil disputes from the
precolonial Choson dynasty through colonial times and into
postcolonial reforms, this book presents a new and groundbreaking
story about Korean women’s legal struggles, revealing their
surprising collaborative relationship with the colonial
state.