Abstract
This is a preliminary study toward a theory of regional justice and considers articles of the mini symposium titled “Legal needs of the areas in short of legal services and the new sphere of attorneys,” which was held at the 2010 Japan Association of Sociology of Law annual meeting. Regional legal practice is getting popular and academic attentions by the treatment to cope with a shortage of legal services, which includes a setting up of the Himawari law firm and the Japan Legal Support Center (hereinafter JLSC), and the expansion of attorney population after the 1990s. We can get a glimpse of the actual state and function of the regional legal service by reading articles of Matsumoto (a pioneer of the Himawari law firms who has made the firm widely known to the public), Tomita (the first generation staff attorney at the JLSC who is known for her collaboration with welfare service), Kosai (a socio−legal scholar who has made research on the legal profession and advice seeking residents at southern islands of Kagoshima prefecture) and Ikenaga (a researcher on the worldwide reforms on access to justice). This paper finally discusses that a regional law and justice as well as welfare and medical care can shed light on the function to advance QOL of the local community and residents by supporting their lives and human relations, which had often been missed in the traditional Japanese legal studies.
