Japanese Law & Society Ⅰ 留

36039

Ｇ．Ｒ．ハラダ

2.00単位

1年

2019年度前期

This course is offered to students who are interested in Japan and for those who would like to gain a general understanding of the present characteristics of Japanese society and the law. It will be a combination of lecture and discussion. The first half will comprise of lectures and student presentations on assigned readings. The second half will require students to form groups and to search for legal issues of their particular interests to present in class. This course will also require each student to submit a short paper on a specific topic of his/her choice from the topics discussed.

The objective of this course is to learn about the Japanese society and the law. Emphasis will be given to topics relating to Politics, Business, Family and Employment.
Since this course will comprise of lectures, student presentations and discussions, another objective is to improve the student's communication and presentation skills.

A detailed outline of the course schedule and readings will be distributed to the students on the first day of class. Previous classes have covered the following topics:

1) Introduction to Japanese Society and the Rule of Law;
2) Political Life and the Law;
3) Current Legal Issues in Japan;
4) The Family and the Law;
5) Japanese Corporation Law;
6) Changing Aspects of the Employment System and the Law;
7) Introduction to the Japanese Court System;
8) Constitutional Litigation (Case Law 1-Equality);
9) Constitutional Litigation (Case Law 2-Health & Welfare);
10) Legal topics presented by students (1);
11) Legal topics presented by students (2);
12) Legal topics presented by students (3);
13) Possible visit to law-related facilities (1-Local Police Department);
14) Possible visit to law-related facilities (2-Local Court House);
15) Final discussion on Japanese Law and Society.　

Japanese Law & Society II

Students will be required to read the assigned materials each week (2 hours of readings) and be prepared for in-class discussion of the scheduled topic.

Text and material will be distributed to students on the first day of class.

1) C. Milhaupt, M. Ramseyer, M. West, eds., THE JAPAMESE LEGAL SYSTEM (Foundation Press, 2006).
2) M. West, LAW IN EVERYDAY JAPAN (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2005).
3) G. McAlinn, ed., JAPANESE BUSINESS LAW (Wolters Kluwer, 2007).

Exams not done during regular exam period.　

Course grades will be evaluated by: 1) attendance/participation in discussions (30%); 2) presentations (40%); 3) final paper (30%).
Evaluations on the presentations will be given at the end of each session.

*Any student that misses a third of the classes (5) will be given a "0" for attendance and will not be allowed to submit the final paper.

Japanese students interested in taking the course must have the equivalent of the following English proficiency:
TOEIC 700 or over;
TOEFL 500 or over (paper-based).