2016 Volume 65 Pages 53-77,en5
Since the 1970s, uncovering of new material sources such as stone inscriptions and wooden tablets with inscription (hereafter called "wooden tablets") has enabled us to challenge the formerly insurmountable obstacle to explore the ancient Korean legal history. Namely, after the 2000s, with ever increasing cases of the excavated wooden tablets from the sixth to seventh century Silla and Baekje, the topic has so far attracted enormous scholarly attention. What we should not miss here is that the wooden tablets also shed light from a different angle to the ancient Japanese legal system.
Yet, recent prominent works on the excavated materials by Korean scholarship have scarcely been introduced to the Japanese academia, leading us to miss the opportunities to examine the mutual relation on the legal tradition between ancient Korean and Japan.
To bridge the gap between the two scholarships, this article aims to introduce the latest findings by the Korean scholarship to the Japanese counterpart, highlighting the major discussions in the recent decade. Therefore, also paying attention to the Japanese scholarship in the field, it attempts to pave a future avenue to further examine the ancient Korean legal history.
