Comprehensive Framework for Building the Legal System (1) Legal Codification, Training of Legal Professions and Political Reform

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In recent years, Asian countries that are in the process of shifting from the socialist system to the market economy system are seeking human resources and knowledge-based assistance from foreign countries, particularly Japan, in order to build up a new legal infrastructure responsive to the move to marketization. Japanese government has started its legal assistance programs for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, etc, since 1996. However, in the course of implementing these programs, some fundamental questions emerged. Among them are questions asking what the philosophy of legal assistance is and what areas of law should be the targets for providing assistance. In this priority area research, academic reviews of the ongoing legal assistance activities in the field are conducted with a view to constructing a new discipline on legal assistance studies.The research group organized joint research with academic institutions in these Asian countries, international conferences and field research, etc, in order to examine the current state of and challenges facing legal education, the training of legal professions, and legal and judicial reforms in these Asian transitional countries.Findings and outcomes of the research are published in the form of reports on "Legal Assistance to Asia as Development Assistance" (Aikyo Masanori, ed), "Legal Assistance within the context of Globalization" (Saburi Haruo, Obata Kaoru, K. Teilee eds) and "Legal Assistance and Legal Reforms" (Sugiura Kazutaka, ed). These reports help clarify the current situation of legal assistance to Asian countries in transition, legal assistance by international and bilateral aid organizations, building of domestic legal system in implementing international economic law, and the relationship between legal assistance and judicial reform in Asian transitional countries. We expect that further research will be conducted on the basis of these achievements.