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The Judiciary And Dispute Resolution In Japan: A Survey, Harold See

Law Faculty Scholarship

An overly brief and misleadingly simple history of the evolution of Japanese legal institutions would begin with the proposition that a century and a quarter ago Japan was a feudal society. By "opening" to the West, Japan was forced to "modernize" (Westernize) its laws. As a code system is easier than a common law system to impose wholesale on a society, the continental European civil law countries served as a model for Japan, which patterned its codes primarily on the civil code of Germany and the criminal code of France. After defeat in the Second World War and subsequent occupation …