Hanrei de Manabu Gyoseiho (Understanding Administrative Law through Judicial Precedents)

Judicial precedents represent the condensation of legal arguments. As such, they are essential and very effective research materials for discourse on the interpretation of positive law. This explains the weight given to judicial precedents in judicial research and education. Although efforts to establish general laws for administration are under way, in the field of administrative law where comprehensive general laws do not exist, the role played by judicial precedents is especially large.
 
All of the judicial precedents presented in the book were decided or upheld by the Supreme Court. Understanding of judicial precedents of the Supreme Court assumes an understanding of the facts of the case, the decisions of the First Instance courts, and the decisions of the appeals courts. In cases where concurring or dissenting opinions are attached, it is necessary to sufficiently examine these opinions to deepen understanding of the court’s opinions. However, due to the space limit, generally commentaries on judicial precedents provide only simple explanations of these. On the other hand, detailed explanation of the facts of the case, First Instance court decisions, and appeals court decisions is a major feature of this book. In many of the cases presented in the book, the appeals court and Supreme Court decisions reflect different thinking or the First Instance court, appeals court, and Supreme Court offer different interpretations of the law. Understanding of the discourse on interpretation of administrative law can be further developed by comparing and contrasting this different thinking and interpretation. Another feature of this book is that it provides detailed explanation of concurring, and dissenting opinions, when such are attached. Reading these opinions along with the opinion of the court will enable deeper understanding of a given judicial precedent.
 
The book takes up a wide variety of cases, including those related to (1) general theories of administrative law, (2) administrative litigation, (3) state redress, and (4) public service law. Examples of (1) include the time limit of administrative law (retrospective application of tax law), administrative procedure (provision of justification for adverse disposition), freedom of information requests (legality of the law requiring disclosure of periodical reports based on the Act on Rationalizing Energy Use), inspection of final criminal case records (legality of non-approval of inspection based on the Act on Final Criminal Case Records), requests for correction (correction requests based on personal information protection regulations related to health insurance remuneration information by hospitals), and the constitutionality of the residence registry network system. Examples of (2) include administrative litigation and criminal actions (petition for the suspension of a decision for institution of prosecution), presence/absence of disposition (disposition of notifications regarding non-selection of subcontractors), standing of competitors (standing to revoke administrative disposition regarding approval to establish a hospital), disadvantage to one’s living environment and standing (standing to revoke administrative disposition regarding approval to establish an off-track betting facility), statute of limitations for filing action (statute of limitation of filing action to revoke the original administrative disposition when a formal request for administrative review has been filed regarding the decision of an expropriation committee), subpoena duces tecum regarding fundamental statistical surveys, action for declaratory judgment and action for injunction (case requesting confirmation of the lack of obligation to sing the national anthem), granting of subsidiary aid (legality of the granting of subsidiary aid for disposal of municipally-operated slaughterhouses), compensation for loss (legality of contracts regarding compensation for loss concluded between local governments and financial institutions), payment of travel expenses (case regarding reimburses of travel expenses for baseball tournament for prefectural assembly members). Examples of (3) include illegality (illegality of action to correct and state redress) and exclusive jurisdiction of action to rescind (taxation and state redress). Finally, as an example of (4), the book discusses restriction of political activities by national government employees.
 

(Written by UGA Katsuya, Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2018)