Japanese-Chinese Civil Law Research (Volume 2)

Author: Qu Tao
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The adoption of foreign law in modern China began in the early 20th century. In 1902, Emperor Guangxu issued an edict: "Adopt foreign laws and revise legal codes." The Legal Drafting Office was established to oversee the drafting of legal codes. In 1906, Shen Jiahuan, the Legal Drafting Minister, sent Tang Kang and others to Japan to study judicial and prison systems, and invited the renowned civil law scholar Mei Qianciyang to China to teach and assist in drafting the Civil Code. Due to certain reasons, Mei Qianciyang could not accept the invitation and recommended Matsuo Yoshimasa, a judge at the Tokyo Appellate Court. At the same time, Japanese scholars invited to China included Okada Asataro, a professor of criminal law at the Imperial University; Koike Shichijiro, an official at the Ministry of Justice; and Shida Koutarou, a professor of commercial law at the Imperial University. Matsuo Yoshimasa came to China in that year and took up the position of a civil law instructor at the Capital Legal Academy. In 1908, the drafting of the Civil Code began, adopting the five-part structure of the German Civil Code. Matsuo Yoshimasa drafted the General Provisions, Property Rights, and Obligations sections, while the Legal Drafting Office, with the assistance of three graduates from the Central University of Japan—Gao Zhong and others—drafted the Family and Inheritance sections. It is evident that modern Chinese civil and commercial law and the study of civil and commercial law have benefited greatly from Japanese civil and commercial law and the study thereof. Since the reform and opening-up, civil and commercial legislation, such as the Contract Law of 1999, has also drawn heavily on Japanese legislation and scholarship. The ongoing drafting of the Civil Code should particularly emphasize the valuable experience accumulated by Japanese civil law over more than a century. Therefore, we have connected with academic colleagues to establish the China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research Association, a purely civilian organization, with the aim of advancing comparative studies on civil and commercial legislation, scholarship, and case law between China and Japan, fostering academic exchanges between Chinese and Japanese civil and commercial law scholars, facilitating the timely publication and dissemination of research findings, and launching a series of publications titled China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research.
China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research (Volume 2) is about to be published. On this occasion of its publication, we would like to introduce the achievements and progress of this volume. After the China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research Association conference was held in Guangzhou in June 2002, Volume 1 of China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research was successfully published (February 2003), and preparations for the second conference immediately began. However, the sudden outbreak of SARS disrupted all meticulously planned arrangements. The originally scheduled conference, held every second Saturday and Sunday in June, was repeatedly postponed, and communication between the host institution and participating scholars proved challenging, adding significant burdens to both. Yet, it is gratifying that thanks to the strong support of the School of Law at Shandong University, after numerous twists and turns, we successfully held the second conference of the China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research Association in Jinan, Shandong, a city with profound cultural heritage, on October 25 and 26, 2003. Despite the multiple changes in the conference schedule, it received strong support from numerous scholars who diligently adjusted their schedules to attend, making it a highly successful legal conference in terms of form, content, and outcomes.
Approximately 60 scholars attended this conference. Among them, Japanese scholars included:
- Hideo Hoshino, a renowned civil law expert, academician of the Japan Academy, and honorary professor at the University of Tokyo;
- Masayoshi Kato, a renowned civil law expert and professor at Nagoya University;
- Katsuzo Ota, a renowned expert in civil procedure and law economics and professor at the University of Tokyo;
- Michio Yuasa, a renowned civil law expert and professor at Aichi Gakuin University;
- Masayoshi Kimama, a renowned expert in Chinese law and professor at Meiji University;
- Ken Suzuki, a renowned expert in Chinese law and professor at Hokkaido University; and 12 other distinguished Japanese scholars.
Additionally, there were four Chinese scholars currently working or studying in Japan. The remaining attendees were domestic scholars and legal practitioners from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shandong, Nanjing, and other regions.
It is worth mentioning that the conference was generously supported by the Japan Foundation for International Exchange, which enabled the hiring of Mr. Lin Guoben and Ms. Yang Jing, highly skilled simultaneous interpreters, to facilitate the event, saving time and enhancing efficiency. Over the course of the conference, scholars engaged in extensive, in-depth, and lively discussions on various hot topics in Chinese and Japanese civil and commercial law. The conference was permeated with the spirit of "sacred scholarship," and scholars' pragmatic, rigorous, and unpretentious academic attitudes ensured that the seminar reached a high academic level.
The academic reports and papers included in this volume were either presented by scholars at the conference or submitted as papers that could not be adjusted due to the SARS outbreak. There are a total of 28 papers, with 15 written by Japanese scholars and 13 by Chinese scholars, all of which are being published in China for the first time. Among them, six papers on the general theory of property law are particularly noteworthy. These were reports from a special seminar on property law held at the 66th conference of the Japan Society of Private Law in 2002 and were previously published as "Materials for the Japan Society of Private Law Special Seminar" in [Japan] Gekkou No. 1229 (2002). These papers systematically and thoroughly discuss the history, current state, and future challenges of property law, and the five Japanese scholars who participated in the seminar and contributed to the papers are all leading scholars in contemporary Japanese law, making these documents highly authoritative and invaluable in the field of civil law research.
The China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research Association was established from scratch and successfully held its second conference thanks to the strong support of Shandong University and the School of Law at Shandong University, the funding from the Japan Foundation for International Exchange, and the active participation of Chinese and Japanese civil and commercial law scholars. On behalf of the association, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to the leaders of the host and funding institutions, the scholars who actively participated in the association, and the professors and graduate students involved in the conference organization.
Additionally, we would like to thank Mr. Huang Min, the chief editor of the Legal Publishing House, and Mr. Jiang Hao, the assistant to the publisher, for their willingness to continue publishing this newly launched series of academic papers despite the increasingly challenging academic publishing environment. We are also deeply grateful to the editors who contributed their hard work to the preparation of the papers.
Furthermore, Wang Yi, a master's student at the School of Law at Shandong University, took on the task of proofreading the text of this volume and is hereby acknowledged.
As mentioned in the opening remarks of China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research (Volume 1), the China-Japan Civil and Commercial Law Research Association and its edited series aim to provide a platform for exchange between Chinese and Japanese civil and commercial law scholars and the legal profession. While we are gratified by the progress made thus far, we also recognize the immense challenges ahead. We sincerely hope that scholars and students who are committed to this cause will join our association and contribute their ideas to its growth, working together to advance this important field of study.