Privatization of the State and Legitimacy of Law : A Sociological Studies on the Transformation of Current Law

当今社会正经历着结构性的变化，为了理解日本社会结构的变化，并全面描述这种变化，我们的分析不是从法律开始，而是从日常生活开始。法律不仅仅是社会关系的反映，它实际上是各种机构和行为者的综合体，其多元性本身必须成为分析的领域。在日本，政治和经济截然不同的公民社会概念并不存在，国家仍然是转型舞台上的主要演员。另一方面，可以认为法律信息反映了社会冲突，法律制度的结构在开放和封闭之间循环摆动。在这方面，我们发达社会的法律似乎正在经历一种破坏和重建的过程。到目前为止，人们普遍注意到，权力下放是有意识的活动。然而，对权力的不信任在与权力行使相关的各种特定背景下重新出现。在这种情况下，解决法律问题就更加不那么简单了。从法律社会学的角度来看，对福利和经济事务的日益陈旧的干预，以及随之而来的对国家与公民社会之间自由分离的侵蚀，逐渐破坏了区分法律秩序的相对一般性和自主性，随之而来的是使其无法维持客观和合理的解决方案。法律的解决方案，似乎包含了不正当行使权力的问题，现在甚至不再被视为这样做了。我们将从这里走向何方，任何替代概念的可能性是什么？这种选择可以通过人们参与和控制决策而变得客观。

Current societies undergo structural changes, and to understand the transformation of the structure of Japanese society and to describe comprehensive picture of it, our analysis begins not with the law but with everyday life. Law is not simply the reflection of social relations but is actually a complex of agencies and actors and the pluralities itself must be the field of analyses. And the notion of civil society in which polity and economy are distinct does not exist in Japan and the state is still main actor in the theatre of the transformation. On the other hand, it can be maintained that legal messages reflect social conflicts, and the structure of legal systems swings cyclically between openness and closure. In this context, law seems to be undergoing a process of both destructing and restructuring in our developed societies. It is by now commonplace to note that the decentralization authority are conscious activities. However, distrust of power re-emerges in variety of particular contexts the problems tied up with the exercise of power. In this context, the solution of law is now even more not so simple. Viewed from the perspective of a sociology of law, increasing stale intervention in both welfare and economic affairs, and the consequent erosion of the liberal separation between state and civil society, gradually undermine the relative generality and the autonomy that distinguish the legal order, and what is follow this is to make it impossible to maintain an objective and justified solution. The solution of law, which seemed to contain the problem of the unjustified exercise of the power, is no longer now even seen as doing so. Where we do go from here and what are the possibilities of any alternative conception? That choices can be made objective by people participating in and controlling decisions about them.