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Flashback: Summer School “Japanese Law in the XXI Century” 10-14 September 2018

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From 10 to 14 September 2018, the Collegio Carlo Alberto in Torino hosted the Summer School “Japanese Law in the XXI Century” (SSJL).

The program saw leading experts in Japanese and comparative law, coming from European and Japanese institutions, giving lectures and participating in roundtables on Japanese law from the perspective of comparative law.

The SSJL offered its 35 participants, mostly undergraduate or graduate students from programs in law or in Japanese studies, an unique opportunity to deepen their knowledge of specific aspects of the Japanese legal system.
The lectures in fact were not simply introductory classes on the Japanese legal system in general, but covered more advanced topics in areas such as constitutional law, private law, criminal law, sociology of law and legal history. Some sessions covered current topics such as the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and Japan.

The SSJL was organized by the Collegio Carlo Alberto of Torino, Keio University, and the University of Torino. The Japan Foundation supported the event, which received also the endorsement of the Italian Society for Japanese Studies (AISTUGIA), of the Italian Society for the Research in Comparative Law (SIRD) and of the Fondazione Italia Giappone of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy.

Here some pictures of the event:

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Stay tuned for the next edition!

Deadline for applications extended! Summer School “Japanese Law in the XXI Century” – Torino, September 10-14

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The deadline for applications for the Summer School “Japanese Law in the XXI Century” (SSJL) that will be held in Torino, from 10 to 14 September 2018, has now been extended to 30 June 2018.

The SSJL is a short, intensive program in Japanese law. For five days, leading experts will give lessons and participate in roundtables on Japanese law from a comparative law perspective.

The goal of the SSJL is advancing scholarship on Japanese law outside Japan.
In particular, it aims at providing students and young scholars in comparative law or in Japanese studies an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the Japanese legal system.

All lessons will be in English. Knowledge of Japanese is welcome, but not required.

The organizers of the Summer School are Collegio Carlo Alberto of Torino, Keio University and the University of Torino.
The Japan Foundation and SIRD supported the event, which received also the endorsement of the Italian Society for Japanese Studies AISTUGIA.
The Bar Association of Torino (Ordine degli Avvocati di Torino) has accredited the SSJL as a source of professional training credits (crediti formativi).  Registered attorneys attending the SSJL will receive 23 credits.

More info, including a detailed program and the application form are on the website of the Summer School. For other questions, send a message to keiotorino2018@gmail.com.

Download here a PDF of the poster.

 

PosterKT NEW.jpg

 

Summer School “Japanese Law in the XXI Century” – Torino, September 10-14

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Applications are open for the Summer School “Japanese Law in the XXI Century” (SSJL) that will be held in Torino, from 10 to 14 September 2018.

The SSJL is a short, intensive program in Japanese law. For five days, leading experts will give lessons and participate in roundtables on Japanese law from a comparative law perspective.

The goal of the SSJL is advancing scholarship on Japanese law outside Japan.
In particular, it aims at providing students and young scholars in comparative law or in Japanese studies an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the Japanese legal system.

All lessons will be in English. Knowledge of Japanese is welcome, but not required.

The organizers of the Summer School are Collegio Carlo Alberto of Torino, Keio University and the University of Torino.
The Japan Foundation and SIRD supported the event, which received also the endorsement of the Italian Society for Japanese Studies AISTUGIA.

More info, including a detailed program and the application form are on the website of the Summer School. For other questions, send a message to keiotorino2018@gmail.com.

Download here a PDF of the poster.

 

PosterKT

 

[EN] Reconsidering the Theories about the Japanese Legal Consciousness

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I am very excited to present here my latest (working) paper: “Nihonjin no Hōishikiron no Saikō” [日本人の法意識論の再考 – Reconsidering the Theories about the Japanese Legal Consciousness].
It builds on the theoretical foundations laid by Prof. Orin S. Kerr in his canonical “A Theory of Law” and on the related scholarship, extending those groundbreaking advances in legal science to the long-debated dilemma of the Japanese legal consciousness.
I find it quite difficult to summarize it, therefore I warmly recommend those interested not to waste time and read here the full version.

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[EN] Japanese Comparative Law and Foreign Influences: A Preliminary Analysis

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My paper on the foreign influences on Japanese comparative law has been published.
This is the abstract:

This paper presents a preliminary quantitative survey of Japanese comparative law books and textbooks and evaluates the patterns and the extent of foreign influence on them. The results of the inquiry were in accordance with the expectations. In the course of the analysis various methodological problems surfaced, such as the exiguous number of sources and the difficulty of finding formal criteria to analyse and process formally the data found. The hurdles to performing quantitative research about such topics are discussed.

Download the paper from the CDCT website: Andrea Ortolani, Japanese Comparative Law and Foreign Influences: a Preliminary Analysis (CDCT working paper 18-2013 / Comparative and Transnational Law 8, ISSN 2280-9406).

Comments, remarks and criticism are very welcome.

jclpreliminaryan

 

[EN] Young Japanese Law Scholars: Fabiana Marinaro

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Third interview to young legal scholars majoring in Japanese law.
Find the previous, to Joel Rheuben here, and to Mao Li here.

Fabiana Marinaro

Introduce yourself in 50 words.

– I am a PhD student in Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester where I am conducting a research on atypical forms of employment. My main areas of interest are labour law and policy.

What led you to Japanese law? Didn’t you know that Japanese do not like the law?

– The curiosity to know whether the Japanese really don’t like the law!

Tell us something about your current research: your subject, why did you choose it, your approach, etc.

– My interest in non-regular (atypical) forms of employment in Japan originated when I came across the Toshikoshi haken mura while I was an exchange student at Hosei University in 2008. Consequently, I started to investigate the dynamics of atypical employment in the country. This led me to my current research subject, i.e. the Japanese labour policy concerning non-regular workers – with a particular focus on agency and part-time workers – and the individuation of litigation patterns of behaviour, that is whether/to what extent workers use the legal resources provided to them in order to protect their rights and foster an improvement in their working conditions.
The selection of this particular topic was determined by what struck me as a peculiar gap of knowledge – in the scholarship on Japanese legal system – in the area of employment and workers’ rights as a research field, the few noticeable exceptions either focusing on the formal dimension of employment relations or circumscribing the discourse on issues relevant to regular employees.
My methodology falls within the law-and-society field. Consequently, I intend to couple documentary research regarding employment policies and courts decisions with qualitative research methods such as in-depth interviews with workers and legal scholars for the collection of first-hand empirical data which might lead to a better understanding of law as a social phenomenon.

What were the most challenging problems that you faced in your research?
Can you tell us something about your results so far?

– The greatest challenge for me has been ‘getting acquainted’ with legal notions and language, not to mention the intricacies of judicial reasoning of Japanese judges. Not coming from a legal training and background, it is an everyday struggle for me.
On a more practical level, one of the biggest difficulties is the one typically associated with the use of qualitative research methods such as interviews – tracking people down for interviews!
So far, I’ve been engaged in a literature review of the existing scholarship on Japanese employment relations and policies on both regular and non-regular forms of employment. One of the most interesting findings so far is undoubtedly the role assumed by non-mainstream trade unions – community and general unions – in supporting workers’ individual labour disputes and legal battles.

Is there anything you find really “strange” in the Japanese legal system? Anything you think should be changed?
What instead is a strength of the Japanese legal system, that should inspire other countries?

– What has always struck me as peculiar are the long incubation periods of legislative reforms, often buried for years in shingikai before reaching the Diet. Changing this aspect of the legislative-making pattern – which to me is definitely a shortcoming – would certainly be beneficial, I think.
As for the strengths, Japan developed a full-fledged and well-organized system of ADR that can act as a means to broaden access to justice. I believe such a system can be of example to other countries.

What is the situation of Japanese (legal) studies in your home country?

– The situation of Japanese legal studies in both my home country (Italy) and the country where I am conducting my studies (UK) is quite discouraging. Japanese law and legal system are hardly seen as fruitful research fields, probably because the old mantra that ‘Japanese don’t like law’ still holds.  In other words, still a long way to go!

Tell us your 3 favourite works on Japanese law. 

– Henderson, D.F. (1965) Conciliation and Japanese Law: Tokugawa and Modern, Washington: University of Washington Press.
– Yasueda, H. (1998) Rodo no Ho to Seisaku [Labour Law and Policy], Tokyo: Yuhikaku, II ed.
– Upham, F.K. (1998) ‘Weak Legal Consciousness as Invented Tradition’ in S. Vlastos (ed.), Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, Berkeley – Los Angeles – London: University of California Press.

Your advice to a law student with an interest in Japan(ese law).

– To quote Mark West (p. 7), keep in mind that – ‘Law matters in everyday Japan. But how law matters also matters’.

Thank you very much Fabiana for sharing your thoughts on your research!

[EN] Japanese Business Law in Western Languages

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This is a must-have book for all the libraries of research institutions focusing on comparative or Japanese law, politics and society, and for all scholars having an interest in those fields.
The authors did a tremendous work, searching and selecting the best and most recent works in all the areas of the Japanese legal system. It provides the reader with the state of the art of current research in all the fields covered.
Literature on business law is reported extensively. But this is not just a book on business law: besides this, the sections exploring the works on all the other areas of the Japanese legal system give  a thorough overview of the major works in Western languages. Most of the works cited are in English or German, but the book mentions also works in French and Italian.

The literature in Western languages on Japanese law, especially in English and German, continues to proliferate – despite, or perhaps because of, Japan’s economic slowdown after its own “asset bubble” burst in 1990. (…)

In 1998 Harald Baum and Luke Nottage published the first edition of their Annotated Selective Bibliography of Japanese Business Law in Western Languages, building on a chapter in Baum’s compendium on Japanese business law published in German in 1994. (…)

The present edition of the Annotated Selective Bibliography further comprehensively updates the annotated introduction to general works related to Japanese law and the economy, including a completely rewritten guide to finding Japanese business law materials via the internet (for a much briefer version in 2009, see here)

(…)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Part I. Introduction
Part II. General Resources: An Annotated Guide
A. Printed Publications
B. Japanese Law-related Online Resources in Western Languages
Part III. Individual Works: Selective Bibliography 1970–2012

(read the rest of the presentation, and the detailed Table of Contents on the Japanese Law and the Asia-Pacific Blog)

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[EN] Simon Vande Walle, Private Antitrust Litigation in the European Union and Japan

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I am very happy to present here the new book of Simon Vande Walle.
Lacking the time necessary to write a proper book review, I just want to highlight a few points.

Plenty has been written about litigation in Japan. The problem with this literature is that litigation is such a broad and heterogeneous phenomenon that it is very hard to draw  meaningful conclusions. As a result, we became stuck with intractable questions such as “do the Japanese litigate less frequently than other people?” or “is there a non-litigious culture in Japan?”.
More recent literature tends to focus on specific types of disputes, such as traffic accident disputes, environmental law litigation (on which I will present at the AIGDC symposium), and so on. This approach seems to be more promising.
Vande Walle’s book is a new addition to this type of scholarship. It focuses on a particular type of litigation, namely private antitrust litigation, and compares the dynamics of these lawsuits in Japan and the EU.
With “private antitrust litigation”, Vande Walle means litigation brought by victims of violations of antitrust law (in Japan, known as dokusenkinshiho 独占禁止法 ). These lawsuits constitute a form of “private enforcement” of antitrust law, complementing the enforcement by public agencies such as, for example, the Japan Fair Trade Commission in Japan or the European Commission in the EU. That this is a burgeoning field of litigation can be clearly understood from a graph in the book which shows the evolution of the number of cases filed in Japan:

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The book contains an interesting discussion on what triggered this rise in cases (p. 132-134). There is much talk in the EU and Japan about collective redress for consumers these days. Italy enacted a statute on collective actions in 2009, and just last week the EU recommended that all member states develop a collective redress mechanism. Interestingly, in Japan, consumer groups were already suing for damages against cartels in the 1970s (p. 255-272). However, the consumers lost and it seems they never recovered because there have been no consumer actions against cartels ever since.

This seems to be the first work to compare private antitrust litigation in the EU and Japan. Vande Walle offers some clues as to why this area has not been explored before: Although Japanese scholars have paid some attention to the experience in Europe, European scholars have completely ignored Japan’s experience. In part, this is due to the scarcity of materials in Western languages. Another reason for the neglect is perhaps the image that private antitrust litigation in Japan is non-existent. While this may have been true in the 1980s, it no longer is, as shown by the almost 300 cases examined for this book.
For these reasons, I warmly recommend this book not only to all scholars of Japanese law, but to all those interested in antitrust law.

Here on Google Books.

Here some excerpts on SSRN.

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Here Simon’s homepage.

[EN] Young Japanese Law Scholars: Mao Li

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Second interview to young legal scholars majoring in Japanese law.

李 貌  (Mao Li)

Introduce yourself in 50 words.

– I am Li Mao, from Hunan Province China, studying both Japanese law and Chinese law as a doctoral student in the Schools of law and politics of the University of Tokyo.

What led you to Japanese law? Didn’t you know that Japanese do not like the law?

– I just want to know how Japan and its economy become so strong since Meiji Restoration. Does it relate to Japanese law, although it is very influenced by Western law such as American law and German law? Japan has experienced significant economic growth since Meiji Restoration. Although Western law such as American Law and German Law made a great difference, I am still interested in the role of Japanese law in the development of Japanese society and economy.
I did not know that Japanese do not like the law. Why?

Tell us something about your current research: your subject, why did you choose it, your approach, etc.

– My research interest lies in taxation, especially taxpayers’ rights in Japan, China and US. Without protection of taxpayers’ rights, the power of government, especially of the Revenue Office cannot be restricted, and then the rule of law will be an aerial castle.
My study examines not only the procedure of tax collection, but also the way to supervise tax use, especially regulation and legislation.

What were the most challenging problems that you faced in your research?
Can you tell us something about your results so far?

– The most challenging problem is that there is a shortage of funds for me to pursue my research. I’m afraid that I have not made any mature work.

Is there anything you find really “strange” in the Japanese legal system?
Anything you think should be changed? What instead is a strength of the Japanese legal system, that should inspire other countries?

– Japan is the only country in OECD which has no taxpayers’ charter, and the legislature has no intention to develop one. I think it is very strange.
Japanese do well in studying foreign legal systems, and then discard the dross and select the essence, to benefit its own system.

Mark West’s book presents some aspects of “Law in Everyday Japan”. You’ve been living in Japan for several years: do you have any anecdotes to tell about everyday law in Japan?

– No, I have not experienced such any anecdotes.

Have you worked in a Japanese law office/firm? If so, can you tell us something about your experience?

– No, I have not.

What is the situation of Japanese (legal) studies in your home country?

– There is still a long way to go.

Tell us your 3 favourite works on Japanese law.

北野弘久『租税法原論』青林書院 2003年.
(Kitano Hirohisa, Sozei ho Genron [General Theory of Tax Law])

金子弘『租税法』弘文堂.
(Kaneko Hiroshi, Sozei ho [ Tax Law])

大村敦志『家族法』.
(Omura Kiyoshi, Kazoku ho [Family Law])

Your advice to a law student with an interest in Japan(ese law).

– Endure loneliness and dull life, after blowing out all sands, you will find the gold.

Thank you very much for your interesting insight on Japanese tax law: an original and often neglected topic.

[EN] Young Japanese Law Scholars: Joel Rheuben

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This is the first in a series of interviews to young legal scholars majoring in Japanese law.

Joel Rheuben

Introduce yourself in 50 words.

I am an Australian solicitor (aged 30), returning to study at the University of Tokyo after several years spent as an associate in the Tokyo office of an international law firm. My area of interest is administrative/public law.

What led you to Japanese law? Didn’t you know that Japanese do not like the law?

A combination of a double major in Japanese Studies and Law at undergraduate level, and a desire to live in Japan after obtaining my legal qualifications. I don’t accept the premise of the second question!

Tell us something about your current research: your subject, why did you choose it, your approach, etc.

I have been using my time in Japan to study broadly and to learn as much as I can about the Japanese administrative/public law system. I have become increasingly interested in the rhetoric used by Japanese courts in declaring administrative conduct to be unlawful when conducting judicial review. My sense is that, formally, Japanese courts appear to be far more willing than courts in e.g. England or Australia to review the substance of administrative conduct – judgments often refer, for example, to whether conduct was “reasonable” or accorded with the “common sense of society” – but given the very low success rate of administrative appeals, I assume that substantively this cannot be the case.
For the time being, I am focusing my Masters dissertation on administrative appeals in relation to refusals to disclose documents on the basis of national security or public order under the freedom of information laws of Australia and Japan. Such refusals involve a high degree of administrative discretion, and courts should ordinarily be hesitant to overturn them. By comparing court judgments in both Australia and Japan, I hope to determine quantitatively in which country courts are more willing to disturb administrative discretion in this area, and qualitatively how courts justify their decisions.

What were the most challenging problems that you faced in your research? Can you tell us something about your results so far?

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