Legal Suits and Illegal Suits in Early Modern Japan

在近代日本德川时代（1615-1867），有三种类型的法律的程序被归类为“诉讼”。第一种是民事诉讼，第二种是刑事诉讼，第三种是向当局请愿。因此，请愿书在德川日本也被称为“诉讼”。今天，我们在德川日本发现了许多关于民事和刑事诉讼的学术书籍和论文。但是，在日本史学界，关于向德川幕府请愿的法律的程序，几乎没有什么研究。因此，本研究对德川幕府时期的请愿程序进行了考察，并明确了这种“诉讼”与当时被称为“诉讼”的其他法律的程序的异同。并对德川幕府处理这些诉讼和请愿的制度进行了描述，指出了这些制度的局限性。从这个研究中，我们可以了解到，对于近代早期的日本人来说，诉讼和请愿是有保障的，而不是有保障的。

There were three types of legal procedures that were classified as "suits" in the Tokugawa Period of early modern Japan (1615-1867). The first was civil lawsuits, the second, criminal lawsuits and the third type was something like petitions to the authorities. Thus, petitions were also called "suits" in Tokugawa Japan. Today, we find many academic books and papers on civil and criminal suits in Tokugawa Japan. I would say, however, we can hardly find any research in the field of Japanese history on the legal procedures related to petitions to the authorities of the Tokugawa Shogunate.This study therefore examines the procedure of petitioning the authorities in the time of Tokugawa Shogunate and makes clear the differences and similarities between this type of "suits" and the other type of legal procedures referred to as suits at that time. It also describes the systhems Tokugawa Shogunate had for handling these suits and petitions and point out limits of these systhems. From this research, we can understand the says in which suits and petitions were guaranteed and those in which they were not guaranteed for the people of early modern Japan.