The Development of Comparative Law in Japan

Abstract

This chapter discusses the historical development of comparative law in Japan, beginning with the Meiji government’s review of Western legal systems in order to craft its own modern legal system. In particular, it explains how foreign and comparative laws were imported into Japan and how the country’s ‘comparative law era’ began. The chapter then considers how Japanese law impacted legal developments in other countries, such as those in Asia and how comparative law studies are carried out within Japan today, with emphasis on consumer and civil law amendments, gradual transformation in corporate law and practice, and reforms within the civil and criminal justice systems. It also examines two major areas of interest among comparative law scholars focused on Japan: civil dispute resolution and corporate governance. Finally, it analyzes opportunities as well as challenges for comparative law scholarship in Japan.

Principles of Asian Contract Law at the Crossroads of Standardization and Legal Pluralism

“…Japanese law was also influential in Siam (Thailand), Cambodia, and Vietnam. See Nottage (2019), pp. 205–6.…”

Introduction to Comparative Dispute Resolution

“…Notably, the essays contributed by Graziadei (2006), Bennett (2006), Gordley (2006), Riles (2006) and Zekoll (2006). In the recently published revised edition of the Reimann and Zimmermann collection (2019), there is little change in this approach: significant exceptions include the essays contributed by Donahue (2019), Graziadei (2019), Nottage (2019), Gordley (2019), Zhang Taisu (2019), Bennett (2019), Riles (2019), Cotterrell (2019) and Zekoll (2019). is on courts, lawyers and the adjudicative dimensions of civil justice, with very little said about the overwhelmingly important processes in most societies around the world of extra-judicial settlement of civil disputes as a dimension of civil justice.…”

Lay Participation in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Spain. Rieko Kage, Who Judges? Designing Jury Systems in Japan, East Asia and Europe (Cambridge: University Press, 2017) pp 264. Hardcover: $74.00.

“…Policy-making regarding the judicial system may be more like that perceived for economic policy-making, meaning "deep rifts among experts on the desirable course of action … that typically reflect more fundamental ideological differences" and with their combined impact "highly contingent on political and institutional 6. Perhaps this indicates a broader tendency for Japan's deliberative councils to not give sufficient weight to a broad range of interdisciplinary perspectives on law-reform questions, despite impressive dedication and growing transparency in law-reform bodies: Nottage (2019).…”

“…6Perhaps this indicates a broader tendency for Japan’s deliberative councils to not give sufficient weight to a broad range of interdisciplinary perspectives on law-reform questions, despite impressive dedication and growing transparency in law-reform bodies: Nottage (2019). …”