Instructor: Prof. Dr. Moritz Bälz
Dates:
Preparatory Meeting: Tuesday 7 February 6:15-7:45 PM, Campus Westend, RuW Building, Room 2.101.
Lectures by Instructor: Tuesday 25 April, 9 May, 23 May, 2:15-3:45 PM, Campus Westend, RuW Building, Room 2.101.
Block session: Tuesday 11 July, 9:45 AM (s.t.!) - 5 PM, Campus Westend, RuW Building, Room 2.101 and
Friday 14 July, 1:00 PM (s.t.!) - 6 PM, Campus Westend, RuW Building, Room 2.102.
For further informations see
OLAT.
Course Description:
Dispute resolution in Japan, in particular strikingly low litigation rates and a rich tradition of alternative dispute mechanism, has long been drawing a strong interest from western scholars of Japanese law. More recently, this debate has been reignited by the comprehensive reform of the Japanese justice system which has gradually been implented since 2001 with a lasting impact on how law operates in Japanese society. Since 2011, the myriad of compensation claims related to the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe has been posing new challenges for dispute resolution mechanisms. Against this backdrop, our course will examine various forms of dispute resolution in Japan including both court proceedings and various forms of alternative dispute resolution (mediation, conciliation, arbitration, etc.) in different fields of law.
During the first three sessions the instructors will introduce the participants to the general theme of the course. All participants taking the course for credit are required to give an oral presentation on an individual topic during the final block session and later hand in as written paper (15 pages).
This Course can be taken as "Kolloquium" (Schwerpunkt "Europäisierung und Internationalisierung des Rechts") and (even simultaneously) as course in "fremdsprachliche Rechtskenntnisse") within the Zentrum für Schlüsselqualifikationen. Language of instruction will be English. Japanese language skills are not required, but most welcome. This course is open to students from all semesters. Slots are limited to encourage active participation.
Registration and distribution of topics for student presentations: in the preparatory meeting.
Introductory reading:
Shusuke KAKIUCHI, Access to Justice in Japan, Japanese Reports for the XVIIth International Congress of Comparative Law (ICCPL Publications No 10, International Centre for Comparative Law and Politics, Tokyo 2007) pp. 113-46 (2007), available online at http://www.asianlii.org/jp/other/JPLRes/2007/1.html. Further readings will be assigned for the lecture sessions.
