The Process of Modernization of Law and Society in Japan and Europe : Historical Studies of Concepts and Social Relationship.

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The aim of this project is to explore the process of the modernization of law and society in Japan and Europe from comparative perspective. The basic method is historical analysis of some important concepts and their social background.The Kingship acquired its central position in the European constitutional history through the development of the organic theory of state during the later antiquity. This theory corresponds sociologically to an ambivalent relationship between kingship and nobility.The nobility organized itself in a horizontal body in order to defend its interests against the growing kingship in the later middle ages, while it had a very complicated relationship with cities and citizens.The taxation, a typical function of the state, developed from activities of the ancient citizens which aimed at displaying their honorable position toward their fellow-citizens (evergetisme). In the fifth century AD,the system to collect tax collapsed and the land rent began to predominate.The central activity of the European state remained jurisdictional until early modern age. In the concept of law and justice, there was a great difference between Japan and Europe in the Middle Ages. The basic image of justice in the "Sachsenspiegel" was the Court of Landrecht which corresponds conceptually to God as judge. The jurisdictional activity in Japan had a tendency to resemble the customary and formal deeds the knowledge of which was inherited in the families (kojitsu).The fundament of the modern society in Japan was created in the Meiji-era. It is important to discard the concept of feudalism in order to grasp the structure of the constitution of this age. For the understanding of the absolutism in Europe, the idea of "title" which served to legitimate the power of the state, is crucial.