Nel Novembre del 2017, il Prof. J. Mark Ramseyer, celebre studioso di diritto giapponese e titolare della Mitsubishi Chair of Japanese Law presso la Harvard Law School decise di rinnovare i fasti della grande tradizione che lega Cambridge (Mass.) con il mondo del diritto giapponese. Gli studi contemporanei in lingua inglese sul sistema giuridico del Giappone sono infatti quasi unanimemente fatti risalire al leggendario convegno dell’autunno del 1961 organizzato da Arthur Taylor Von Mehren, dal quale nacque il famoso volume “Law in Japan: The Legal Order of a Changing Society“.
Il risultato dell’iniziativa del Prof. Ramseyer è stato il simposio “New Perspectives in Japanese Law”, tenutosi presso la Harvard Law School il 28-29 settembre 2018. I partecipanti erano divisi in due categorie: i relatori e i commentatori.
Questo il programma:
Panel 1: Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Toshiaki Yamanaka, Associate Research Scholar in Law, Yale Law School: Competition in Board Structures: Empirical Evidence from Japan
Timothy Webster, Associate Professor of Law, Director of Asian Legal Studies, Case
Western Reserve University School of Law: Disaggregating Corporate Liability: Japanese Multinational Enterprises and World War II
Gen Goto, Associate Professor, University of Tokyo, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics: The Logic and Limits of Stewardship Codes: The Case of Japan
Panel 2: Friday, 11: 15 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Wered Ben-Sade, Ph.D. candidate, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, & Teaching
Fellow, Bar Ilan University: How do Japanese Judges Resolve Disputes? Mediation and Adjudication of Labor Disputes in the Japanese Courts
A. Reid Monroe-Sheridan, Assistant Professor, Keio Law School; Principal, Monroe- Sheridan Foreign Law Office: Promoting Legal Innovation: Japanese Startup Financing
Shannon Itoyama, Adjunct Professor of Law, Keio University: Defining Safety: The Legal
Fallout of Fukushima
Panel 3: Friday, 2:30 p.m. – 5: 10 p.m.
Dimitri Vanoverbeke, Professor at the Japanese Studies Section (Law and Society) at the
Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium): The Unanticipated Socio-political Consequences of Lay Participation in Criminal Trials in Japan
Jordan Corrente Beck, Associate, Debevoise & Plimpton: The Reproductive Body at Work: An Examination of Article 68 of the Labor Standards Law
Hiroyuki Kohyama, Associate Professor, Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of Law: A New Japanese Lump-Sum Tax on Individuals and Its Constitutionality: Regional Cost-of-Living Adjustment
Mark Levin, Director, Pacific-Asian Legal Studies Program and Professor of Law, William S. Richardson School of Law, The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa: Gender and Law Scholarship in the Law in Japan Field: A Bibliographic Study and Comment
Panel 4: Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 11:40 a.m.
Andrew Pardieck, Associate Professor of Law, Southern Illinois University School of Law: Bargained Justice: A Comparative Analysis of Plea Bargaining
Keigo Fuchi, Professor of Law, Kobe University Graduate School of Law: Stanley Surry and the Development of Administrative Law in Japan
Masayuki Tamaruya, Professor of Law, Rikkyo University Faculty of Law: The Reform of
the Japanese Law of Nonprofits: A Historical and Comparative Perspective
Julius Weitzdoerfer, Affiliated Lecturer and Director of Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge: Disaster Law and Social Justice in Japan: The Tsunami of Debt and Lost Homes
A tutti i relatori era stato chiesto di consegnare l’intero paper in anticipo, per permettere ai commentatori di prepararsi adeguatamente per la discussione. Ramseyer era stato inequivocabile a riguardo: “I want this to be an intellectually exciting conference — so I hope that you will retaliate by giving the presenters chosen an unusually hard time (as usual, my U Chicago roots are coming out)”
L’intensissima due giorni è stata caratterizzata da dibattiti e discussioni non soltanto sui temi delle presentazioni, ma anche sullo stato degli studi sul diritto giapponese nel mondo.
Il Nichi-I Hikakuho Kenkyukai era ben rappresentato, con due partecipanti (Colombo e Ortolani). In termini di nazionalità, l’Italia raggiungeva un ottimo terzo posto a pari merito con Canada e Germania, dietro a Giappone e Stati Uniti.
L’invito del Prof. Ramseyer si chiudeva con la frase “Please come. I promise that it will be fun”. E certamente non ha avuto torto!