ANALISI DI DIRITTO COMPARATO DEL SISTEMA GIURIDICO GIAPPONESE: TRA OCCIDENTALIZZAZIONE ED ORIGINALITA'

This research paper analyses the relationship between Japan and the West through a comparative law perspective, taking into account Japan’s status of hybrid legal system, its legal culture, and its links with the Occidental legal world. In order to ease the reader into this fascinating yet complex topic of discussion, this study beings with a depiction of the Archipelago’s legal history. This historical excursus will start from the origins of the Japanese Empire, focusing on the first contacts with the Chinese philosophical concepts of the Confucianism, to the American invasion in the aftermaths of the Second World War. This first chapter will guide the reader through the legal and historical milestones that shaped Japan’s legal system. The paper will then retrace the creation of the Japanese Codification, by means of an extensive legal contextualization and comparison between the models of inspiration. From the Emperor’s choice, to Japan’s receiving of the foreign models, to the understanding of their similarities and differences, this chapter ensures the reader a thorough comprehension of the process of codification and the stylistically choices behind the Japanese civil code and constitution. The third section is then dedicated to the explanation of both Western and Japanese domestic comparative jurisprudence. The reader will understand the legal roots of the comparative field, the possible choice of comparison, and the main tool of analysis: the taxonomic systematization. The last chapter of this paper finally give the reader some insights on the resilient, millennial Japanese legal culture. The main topics that will be developed here regard Japan’s codependence between law and culture; the role played by the legal tradition in the legitimization of the government’s actions; and lastly the traditional preference towards conciliation as a peaceful and restoring means of dispute settlement.