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Full-Text Articles in Torts

An Explanation Of Japan's Product Liability Law, Thomas Leo Madden Mar 1996

An Explanation Of Japan's Product Liability Law, Thomas Leo Madden

Washington International Law Journal

Japan has been contemplating the implementation of a product liability system since 1972. After much discussion, the Product Liability Law (Law No. 85 (1994)) was finally promulgated on July 1, 1994. It came into force one year later on July 1, 1995. In Japanese the law is called Seizōbutsu Sekinin Hō. The original article explains the law's historical significance and practical impact. It is commentary in style and is meant to serve as a basic guideline to help both consumers and businesses understand their respective rights and obligations under this new law.


Why Japan's New Products Liability Law Isn't, Andrew Marcuse Mar 1996

Why Japan's New Products Liability Law Isn't, Andrew Marcuse

Washington International Law Journal

The statutory language of Japan's 1994 Products Liability Act envisions a strict liability regime that would replace the previous negligence-based regime. This Comment reviews the development of the previous products liability regime, then analyzes the 1994 Products Liability Act in relation to Civil Code articles 415, 570, and 709 as well as EC Directive 85/374, and the 1975 Draft Model Law on Products Liability. The Comment concludes that because the 1994 Products Liability Act incorporates the Civil Code articles and their judicial interpretations, without addressing any of several structural and procedural barriers to suit, the 1994 Products Liability Act cannot …


Punitive Damages In Ancient Roman And Contemporary American Tort Law, Esther Julia Sonntag Jan 1996

Punitive Damages In Ancient Roman And Contemporary American Tort Law, Esther Julia Sonntag

LLM Theses and Essays

Both ancient Roman and contemporary American tort law recognize a type of damages that, instead of compensating the plaintiff for harm suffered, punishes the wrongdoer. In American law, courts can award two distinct amounts of money: compensatory damages for the plaintiff’s loss, and punitive damages as punishment and deterrence. Ancient Roman law had more extreme forms of remedies. In both legal systems there has been a trend to restrict punitive damages over time. The United States made efforts in the 1980s to place caps on punitive damages, which were referred to as “relics of the past,” and enhance requirements for …


Informed Consent And Patients' Rights In Japan, Robert B. Leflar Dec 1995

Informed Consent And Patients' Rights In Japan, Robert B. Leflar

Robert B Leflar

This article analyzes the development of the concept of informed consent in the context of the culture and economics of Japanese medicine, and locates that development within the framework of the nation's civil law system. Part II sketches the cultural foundations of medical paternalism in Japan; explores the economic incentives (many of them administratively directed) that have sustained physicians' traditional dominant roles; and describes the judiciary's hesitancy to challenge physicians' professional discretion. Part III delineates the forces testing the paternalist model: the undermining of the physicians' personal knowledge of their patients that accompanies the shift from neighborhood clinic to high-tech …