Hirogaru minpō 5 (The Expanding Civil Law 5: A Review of Academic Discussions - Discovering the Space of Public Discourse)

When you enter a university faculty of law or law school, you will study civil law using a number of textbooks on the subject. I once wrote just such a textbook, Kihon minpō I~III (Basic Civil Law I—III; first edition, 2001-2004). There are also numerous supplementary materials covering topics that cannot be thoroughly covered in the textbooks. My Mō hitotsu no kihon minpō 1, 2 (Another Basic Primer on Civil Law 1 & 2; 2005-2007) is of this genre. Subsequently, in order to respond to the successive revisions of Japan’s Civil Code in the late 2010s, and because my thinking on civil law had advanced somewhat, I updated the textbook and published it under the new title of Shin kihon minpō 1—8 (New Basic Civil Law 1—8; first edition, 2014-17). At the same time, I began drafting a new series of supplementary materials titled Hirogaru minpō (The Expansion of Civil Law).
 
This book, Hirogaru minpō 5: Gakusetsu kaidokuhen (The Expansion of Civil Law 5: A Review of Academic Discussions) is the second in a series of six books, published after the first in the series, Hirogaru minpō 1: Nyūmon hen (The Expansion of Civil Law 1: Introduction; 2017). The first introductory book in the series was based on my classroom materials introducing first year undergraduate students to the study of law. This second book in the series on “A Review of Academic Discussions,” is a compilation of my themed lectures on civil law for both undergraduate and graduate law school students and covers one third of my legal lectures with the remaining two-thirds of my lectures being devoted to a general summary of civil law.
 
Since the introduction of the new bar examination system as a part of a major overhaul of Japan’s judicial system, the study of civil law has shifted to a greater emphasis on positive law (the Civil Code, special laws and judicial precedents). For a deeper understanding of positive law, it is useful to review the academic discussions that led to the evolution of how the legal institutions are understood today. It is also necessary to change the manner of legal debate if positive law (and the society that is structured upon positive law) is to be improved upon.
 
Looking back at the evolution of academic discussions of civil law throughout the 20th century, we can see that social issues played a significant role (for the most part, these “social issues” were issues related to social class/status). The question now is, what are the issues that we need to tackle in the 21st century? And the clues for how to approach this question can be found by looking back at the academic discussions of the 20th century.
 
In our efforts to change laws and society, we must not only seek to influence the legal interpretations of precedents and government amendments to legislation, we must also seek out another forum, besides those of the judiciary and legislation, in which to debate how laws and society as a whole can be made better. And that forum is a “space of public discourse,” a forum of academic discussion (in a broad sense) that has much potential for vigorous and substantive debate. I hope that any person keen on learning about law and society will not only be interested in reading about the academic discussions presented herein, but will also participate in the debates.
 

(Written by OMURA Atsushi, Professor Emeritus, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2023)