Mada Hogaku wo Shiranai Kimi e (For Those Who Are Going To Be Familiar With Law)

What exciting issues can you encounter and engage in when you study law? For the first- and second-year college students of the University of Tokyo, we have been offering a class called “Law and Today’s World,” in which more than a dozen faculty members of the Faculty of Law have been lecturing one session each since the 2021 academic year.
 
The book, “For Those Who Are Going To Be Familiar With Law,” is modeled after the contents of the 2021 course, which contains 13 lectures by 13 faculty members of the Faculty of Law. All joined the book.
 
Regarding the involvement of law faculty with high school and first- and second-year college students, some believe that students should focus on liberal arts courses and law basics and should not study specialized law. Even if most people do not go to that extreme, such a philosophy type has long existed and has defined the thinking of many legal researchers and educators. We are aware, of course, that there are excellent advantages to such a way of thinking.
 
Conversely, it is possible to think in the following way. “I understand the need to study the basics. However, I need a concrete image of where and how the basics can work. Then, the study of the basics will be enhanced and enriched. I would be grateful if a course provided such materials and opportunity.” Many young people undoubtedly feel this way.
 
In this course, faculty members from diverse specialties, regardless of which grade they are placed in the orthodox curriculum, will introduce, one session at a time, the specialized issues they are confronting. Using the course title “Law and Today’s World,” rather than “Today’s Law,” we have tried to fit in even with the introduction of research that takes history as a subject matter.
 
In the case of the University of Tokyo, there is a geographical barrier. First- and second-year students and the Faculty of Law are located on different campuses. We believe that by first overcoming this barrier through various innovations, we will be able to disseminate our work to the general public, including high school students.
 
This book will provide triggers to study law basics for those who want to study law. It will provide perspectives to consciously consider the relevance of law to their fields of interest for those who wish to major in other areas of study.
 

(Written by SHIRAISHI Tadashi, Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2022)