The Dispute resolution system, including the court system, is designed to work under normal conditions. The purposes of this article are 1) to examine whether it is possible for people to consider self-help in cases of emergency during the great disaster in a situation where people could not obtain access to the dispute resolution system, and 2) to understand the role of the law in resolving disputes that had changed in the course of time after the disaster, such as those disputes that occurred three months after the earthquake and those disputes that changed in nature after six months, by referring to the statistical analysis of the legal consultation for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake, arranged by the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations. I undertook additional research by interviewing the attorneys in charge of the Earthquake ADR, led by the Sendai Bar Association, and took a field survey of the places where disputes had occurred in Miyagi prefecture. As great disasters such as the Great East Japan Earthquake, we should consider that it takes a longer time to return to normal conditions than we had imagined. The dispute resolution system, especially the court system, should respond to the situation flexibly. Though self-help has been strictly restricted in Japanese law, we may consider relaxing the restrictions on self-help to protect the rights of victims of great disasters.
