The Legal Framework for Strengthening UK/Japanese Relations: Trade, Policy, and Constitutional Dimensions

这一提议是由这样一种信念推动的，即与日本有关的法律研究的范围和深度一直不符合目的。英国和日本的宪法和国际法实践与传统之间存在着一系列重要的联系，合作探索的时机已经成熟。加强发展研究关系，以加深我们对这些宪法问题的理解，对于扩大双方对英国和日本如何治理的理解至关重要。如果要通过国际贸易承诺扩大国家之间的经济和政治关系，这种集体谅解将是将此类承诺纳入国内法律结构的基本前提。这也将产生相当大的学术收益--这些丰富的宪法合作和比较研究的可能性在很大程度上仍未得到开发，这是先进民主国家宪法学术的一个重大空白。我们的工作方案旨在解决英日关系的两个广泛但核心的方面：与贸易相关的，以及宪法方面的。这项工作将扩大社会科学研究不同社区的理解，并通过我们的利益相关者参与将上述发现转化为用户社区，如我们在支持案例中所阐述的那样。工作方案1：英国不仅应将自己描述为日本企业的“通往欧洲的门户”。该项目探索了英国可以通过哪些法律手段加深两国之间的联系，并在可能的情况下，在公司治理、电子商务、知识产权保护和监管合作等领域超过欧盟-日本环保局授予的一体化水平。与日本牢固的战略联系也将促进更广泛的计划，例如英国加入跨太平洋伙伴关系协定(TPP)，这是一个长期项目，可能会补充英国在东方的角色，以及它在中国领导的一带一路项目中的关键角色。工作方案2：尽管英国未成文的制度和日本成文宪法文本在宪法结构上存在差异，但在制度和理念方面都有重要的共同点。对英国和日本学者提出相关挑战的关键制度问题包括选举制度的运作和政府民主问责的方法、最高法院在执行基本准则方面的作用、内阁政府的职能以及议会程序的有效性。我们认为，这需要在理论和实践中逐步改变。用户参与、跨部门行动、部署独特和适当形式的知识，必须涉及新的主张和治理形式。这样的变化也有很深的政治性。将跨学科方法应用于我们的学术计划，进一步的目标是培养新一代的研究人员，他们正确理解两国的共同关切，并建立网络来探索他们的研究议程。我们的项目将在英国即将脱离欧盟之前开始，我们的目标是在更高的政治背景下为英国的国际战略提供信息。

This proposal is driven by the conviction that the scope and depth of legal research pertaining to Japan has been unfit for purpose. There are a range of significant connections between the constitutional and international law practices and traditions of the UK and Japan which are ripe for collaborative exploration. Bolstering developing research relationships to deepen our understanding of these constitutional issues will be crucial in extending understanding on both sides of how the UK and Japan are governed. If the economic and political relationship between the states is to be extended through international trade commitments, such collective understanding will be an essential prerequisite of embedding such commitments in domestic legal structures. This will also generate considerable academic benefits - these rich possibilities for collaborative and comparative research in constitutional law remain largely untapped, which is a major gap in the constitutional scholarship of advanced democratic states.Our Work Packages aim to address two broad but central aspects of UK-Japanese relations: trade-related, and constitutional. This work will extend understanding in the diverse communities of social science research and contribute towards translating said findings into user-communities via our stakeholder engagement, as elaborated in our Case for Support.Work Package 1: The UK shall not only present itself as the "gateway to Europe" for Japan business. This project explores the legal means by which the UK can deepen the bond between the two countries and, if possible, surpass the level of integration granted by the EU-Japan EPA in areas such as corporate governance, e-commerce, intellectual property protection and regulatory cooperation. A strong strategic link with Japan would also facilitate wider plans, such as the UK's membership to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a long-term project that might complement the UK's role in the East of the world, alongside its key role in the China-led OBOR enterprise.Work Package 2: Despite differences in constitutional structure between the UK's uncodified system and the Japanese written constitutional text, there are important points of commonality in both institutional and conceptual terms. The key institutional issues which raise connected challenges for UK and Japanese scholars include the operation of electoral systems and the approach to the democratic accountability of government, the role of Supreme Courts in the enforcement of fundamental norms, the functions of Cabinet government, and the effectiveness of parliamentary processes.We contend that this needs a step change in both theory and practice. User involvement, acting across sectors, deploying distinct and apt forms of knowledge, must involve new propositions and forms of governance. Such changes are also deeply political. Applying interdisciplinary approaches for our academic programmes, a further objective is to nurture a rising generation of researchers with a proper understanding of the common concerns of the two nations, and the networks to explore their research agendas. See further, Academic Beneficiaries document.Our Projects will commence just before the UK is set to leave the EU, and we aim to inform the UK's international strategy wherever the higher politics takes us.