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Institute of Legal Studies

The Institute of Legal Studies is a research organization that was established with the objectives of cultivating cutting-edge academic disciplines and contributing to improving the quality of the public’s lives in a legal sense and the development of a culture of law. It does this by conducting studies and research that grapple with problems pertaining to legal, judicial, and administrative practice, theory, and policy.

In FY2021 four joint research teams (New Approaches for the Interface Between Politics and Society, Technological Innovation and criminal law, Law Enforcement in Public Administration, Rethinking Rationality of General Provisions and Specific Provisions of Commercial Transactions in Japanese Commercial Code) carried out activities at the institute. What is more, the institute also hosts extension lectures, and other such events that cover new lawmaking and research trends in an effort to return the results of its research to the public, practitioners, and others. The results of the institute’s activities are also published and released in publications such as the ISL Research Report series and its magazine Nomos, which are highly regarded by the likes of researcher and practitioners.

In recognition of this track record, the institute was chosen as a center for the Academic Frontier Project for Private Universities by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technol-ogy in April 2000. The institute carried out research project activities centered around the theme of the connection between international financial reforms and law up through March 2005. In Sep-tember 2008 the institute was selected for the MEXT-Supported Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities as a base for the minority studies it has accumulated thus far, and the Center for Minority Studies was newly launched to carry out research activities and achieve results by March 2013.

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Outline

Director's Greeting

Prof. Dr. Mitsuru
IIJIMA
(Faculty of
Law)

The Institute of Legal Studies(ILS) of Kansai University was first established in Uichi Iwasaki Memorial Hall in 1987 which was the following year of commemoration of the centennial anniversary of the foundation of Kansai University. Professor Iwasaki was from Saga Prefecture and obtained Ph. D. at Columbia University in U.S. as the first foreign student from Kansai University. After his study in U.S., he was employed as a professor in Kansai University. He served as the first dean of faculty of law and letters, the first director of university library and the 17th, 19th, and 20th president of Kansai University.
The ILS held the event of centennial anniversary in 1991 for the Judgment of Otsu Incident, and also held a symposium and a lecture of 10th anniversary of founding the institute in 1997. Countless symposia have been held since 1987. After entering a new century in 2001, the ILS has been moved to Kojima Korekata Hall which was newly opened. Justice Kojima was from Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture and served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It is well known that in Otsu Incident in 1891, he defended the independence of judiciary against the political pressure, which is important as one of the principles of constitutions in western countries at that time. When he was the chief judge of the court of appeals of Osaka, he made much contribution to establish Kansai Law School. Such actions made Professor Iwasaki and Justice Kojima “internationalists.” We take internationalization as a foundation of the ILS.
Japanese industrial structure is now influenced not only by “internationalization” but also by “information technology” and “information-oriented innovation.” In order to cope with these tendencies, we are asked to respond steadily. The ILS has accumulated faithfully the results of research and reports for 20 years so as to meet the demand. The results of our research titled as “Study Report Series,” widen your view and imagination, and we have continued to publish it more than 30 volumes by over 20 research groups about varieties of themes. Furthermore, the results of the research projects have been compiled including “ International Financial Revolution and Law,” which had been adopted as an “Academic Frontier” project by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Our periodical called “Nomos” introduces biannually any types of symposia and seminars which are held by the ILS over 10 times a year. We have invited many scholars from Japan, the U.S, and countries from Asia, Oceania, and EU, including lawyers and specialists from other legal fields to various events, and published journals as the fruits of our studies for twenty years.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of foundation of the ILS here in Osaka which has Kansai International Airport, we must take internationalization into consideration seriously, and respond to all kinds of demands for legal studies actively and cooperate with other institutes. Therefore we would like to ask your continuous support for the ILS activities.

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Research Activities

New Approaches for the Interface Between Politics and Society

Period of Study

April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2025

Study Theme

Analysis of Political and Administrative Practices at the Interface with Diverse Social Domains

Purpose of Study

This research group aims to theoretically and empirically analyze the development at the interface with various domains of society at large, without being closed to politics, administration, the state, or government. Specifically, we focus on everyday political practices developed at the interface and subsequently depict any dysfunction or inherent problems with politics and administration in modern society.

Reviewing academic history, the idea of examining politics at the interface with society was already present in early 20th century American political science. However, with the setback in behavioral politics in the 1970’s and the transition to post-behavioral era, political science has since rather limited its subject areas and methods. However, the interface between politics and society in modern times has undergone a major transformation. Public forums on the internet, and private spheres, such as families, intermediate organizations, and social movements are no longer bound by region or occupation. Also, there has been a rise in global corporations and organizations that transcend the framework of sovereign states. A renewed image of contemporary politics using new ideas, theories, and analytical approaches is necessary since the above transformations inevitably affect the political and administrative practices developed at the interface. In fact, political science has in recent years attempted to analyze political phenomena from various interface domains by actively adopting methodologies used in other disciplines, such as experiments and fieldwork. This research group refers to such studies and shows that political analysis with contemporary actuality is possible in practices that have not been the subject of existing political analysis.

Group Members
[Head] Shinji Nishiyama: Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Studies
  Masataka Yasutake: Professor, Faculty of Policy Studies
  Akira Kajiwara: Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Studies
  Jaehyun Song: Associate Professor, Faculty of Informatics
  Kei Nishiyama: Adjunct Resercher (Senior Lecturer, Kaichi International University)

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Technological Innovation and criminal law

Period of Study

April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2025

Study Theme

Technological Innovation and criminal law

Purpose of Study

In recent years, communications environments have improved round the world, serving to facilitate development of industries dependent on communications. Today, as data from various sectors is shared and utilized, said information and related technologies are more highly valued. Additionally, the protection of data key to personal information, such as DNA, is becoming increasingly important. As these trends are expected to intensify in the future, legal solutions in the event of problems potentially arising from these technologies does not necessarily fall in line with development.

This situation has led to numerous issues that were not anticipated under conventional criminal law, which was originally developed to handle cases involving people or objects. Certain limitations to the law have this been identified. For instance, there is discission about who is the primary responsible party in the event of accidental death caused by automated driving. In addition, while there is a need to focus on legal protection of data, at the same time there are concerns such as expanded scope of punitive measures, and administrative issues such as conflict pertaining to collection and use of personal information regarding criminal investigations. The main purpose of this research is to consider and analyze various issues pertaining to criminal law that have arisen in tandem with relevant technical innovation.

Group Members
[Head] Yukako Sagawa: Professor, School of Law
  Rikizou Kuzuhara: Professor, Faculty of Law
  Hiroki Nakashima: Professor, School of Law
  Yu Kamon: Adjunct Resercher (Professor, Ritsumeikan University)
  Hiroki Yamashita: Adjunct Resercher (Senior Lecturer, Kobe Gakuin University)

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Law Enforcement in Public Administration

Period of Study

April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2025

Study Theme

Law Enforcement in Public Administration

Purpose of Study

A characteristic of public administration in Japan is said to be that administrative guidance is given even when achieving administlative purposes is difficult except through the exercise of publich authority. Although soft responses are appropriate, it is difficult to say that the exercise of public authority and soft responses are being used appropriately. Even if the government is given the legal authority to enforce and employ sanctions should citizens not fulfill their obligations, it does not mean that such legal authority is exercised sufficiently. Administrative guidance is given under various restriction, which may result in situations such as neglect or tacit compliance. In addition, civil law and criminal law may be invoked as general laws when exerting administrative authority proves difficult, yet concerns remain about whether these laws have been evaded in relation to the provisions within administrative law.

This study investigates how the authority of administrative law is used, and how civil law and criminal law are invoked when citizens do not fulfill their administrative obligations. Then, using the expertise for each branch of law, we investigate the limits that civil law and criminal law have when used as general laws for administrative purposes. Further, we clarify the current state of law enforcement in administration and consider how to improve the problem.

Group Members
[Head] Osamu Araki: Professor, Faculty of Law
  Masae Matsushiro: Professor, Faculty of Law
  Yoshiaki Mizuno: Professor, Faculty of Law
  Megumi Ikeda: Associate Professor, Faculty of Law
  Hokuto Yojou: Adjunct Resercher (Associate Professor, Osaka University of Economics)

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Rethinking Rationality of General Provisions and Specific Provisions of Commercial Transactions in Japanese Commercial Code

Period of Study

April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2025

Study Theme

Research on rationality of Rethinking Rationality of General Provisions and Specific Provisions of Commercial Transactions in Japanese Commercial Code

Purpose of Study

Under amendments to the Civil Code 2017, conspicuous discrepancies in civil code and commercial code in regards to commercial acts—specifically the statutory rate of interest for commercial matters and trading laches—were eliminated to engender greater uniformity of the civil code. In fact, regarding regulations pertaining to general rules of commerce and other relevant rules—with the exception of code pertaining to amendments made to the commercial code in 2018 (pertaining to transportation and maritime law)—only minor changes were needed to comply with credit law revisions.

However, there remain numerous unclear factors with regard to streamlining regulations on general rules of commerce and other relevant rules. For example, main clause of Article 504 of the commercial code, which describes the undisclosed principal concept with regard to commercial activities by agents, i.e. even where there is no signature, allows attribution of effects to the person in question. At the same time, the proviso under Article 504 does not impede demands for fulfillment made on an agent by the choice of the other party.

However, if the act in question constitutes legal duty that cannot be performed by an alternate, then the demand for fulfillment (with the exception of monetary compensation) on an agent is impossible; therefore it appears the regulation is designed for very limited application such as mass repeat trading of items as delineated under the same Article. Little research, however, has been conducted on the facts.

Further, in regards to how regulations on contract nonconformity in trading are applied, discrepancies can be observed even in textbooks on commercial acts in compliance with the revised laws.

The purpose of this research is to re-examine the rationality of regulations on general rules of commerce and other relevant rules, based on the credit law revisions described above, in order to identify optimal systems—including civil and contract law—and make appropriate recommendations.

Group Members
[Head] Hiroaki Hara: Professor, Faculty of Law
  Yukihiro Sasamoto: Professor, Faculty of Law
  Keita Baba: Professor, Faculty of Law
  Daiju Murata: Professor, Faculty of Law
  Kengo Minami: Adjunct Resercher(Professor, Nihon University)

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