Curriculum and Faculty
Japanese Law
This course, taught by
Professor Mark West, Director of the Japanese Legal Studies Program, is the basic course in Japanese law. Subjects covered include the roles of Chinese, German, and American law in the development of modern Japanese law, the formal structure of the legal system (including the roles of the judiciary and the bureaucracy), the legal profession, formal and informal dispute settlement mechanisms, and attitudes toward law and its operation. Selected areas of substantive law that are examined include contracts, torts, constitutional law, corporate law, economic regulation, family law, labor law, and criminal law. For two to three weeks, the course is co-taught with visiting faculty from the
University of Tokyo Faculty of Law.
The following Japanese law-related courses have been offered in recent years or are scheduled to be offered in the near future:
- Comparative Family Law
- Comparative Corporate Law
- Reading Japanese Law (in Japanese)
- Independent Research. Second-year, third-year and graduate students may enroll for independent research under the supervision of a member of the Law School faculty.
All Japanese law-related courses are open to graduate students from other schools within the University with permission of the instructor.