Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/39

20

77/6' Green Bag.

It is easy to see why different attitudes were taken by different bodies of men. For the Government, on the one hand, invested with the duty of providing the nation with a systematic body of law, and persuaded that resort was impossible to the indigenous cus toms, it was natural to turn to France. Here they found, as they considered, and as

M. Boissonade has said, " a complete legisla tion — civil, commer cial, and criminal — in clear and concise form," easy to adapt and simple to teach. Subsequent investiga tion and a changed policy led them to find similar virtues in Ger man legislation. As France and Germany once turned from their own formless and con fused customs to the cultured civil law, as to-day Russian and Scandinavian jurists, fascinated by the sci entific form of German jurisprudence, are in troducing the leaven of the civil law into their indigenous systems; KOKAKAMURA so Japan turned to the (Formerly Profess0r of * continental law for her model. But in Japan the movement came from governing states men, not jurists. They had two great sys tems to choose from; they might have turned to England or America instead of to the Continent. But with the English com mon law as the representative of t lie second system, and with Mr. Field's American code not yet accepted, they rightly judged that they could neither adopt the English law in its formless condition nor attempt to do what England had not yet done for herself, — cause it to be codified. Their choice was, under the circumstances, a natural one. On

the other hand, the leaders of the Tokyo Bar were and are to-day chiefly Englisheducated lawyers. They had found the Eng lish law the best training for the bar. Their interests, their convictions, and their sympa thies were in its favor; and they, naturally enough again, threw their influence against continental law. As for the mercantile class, they were for the most part conser vative men, proverbi ally devoted to cus tom and tradition. They saw they did not know what in novations impending, and they protested. Whether the new law was French or Eng lish, it was to them equally distasteful; and for the moment their cause was iden tical with that of the lawyers, and the forces were joined. But all this is now a dream of the past. The Codes have taken their place on the statutebook, and their exist ence is a part of the immutable order of KIYONORI. things. '" "" One naturally asks. What rightful place can Anglo-American law have in legal edu cation in Japan, if continental law is the staple of its jurisprudence? It has such a place, and for several reasons. First, its practical character makes it an invaluable element in the training of students. The Japanese student, for reasons which will be touched upon later, needs just such concrete material as our law furnishes; and it is well understood here that for the sake of mental exercitation alone it is well worth retaining in the curricula. Again, there are certain topics in Anglo-American law — such, for