Abstract
The modern welfare state has to be built on a democratic basis. In order to preserve a welfare state which is human and responsive to people's needs, systems of justice as a forum for establishing rules of law and for debating policies and issues of legal value must be established.
The systems of justice should, in the author's view, have a comprehensive structure consisting of a variety of mechanisms for redress so that the ideal of universal access to justice can be realized. There should be exploration toward creation of effective mechanisms which can function as intermediates between litigation in court and negotiation by the parties. Japan is the most suitable place for developing a theory on comprehensive systems of justice, since mechanisms designed for dealing with settlement of disputes in the intermediate stage, including, among other things, traditional mediation and new procedures for handling administrative grievances, have proven to be successful.
Functional interrelation or exchange can be found among various mechanisms. Legal standards established by court decision penetrate other processes, while standards formulated in the process of mediation or handling grievances sometimes penetrate judicial decision. That is to say, ripple effects run in both directions in comprehensive systems of justice. Starting from such hypothesis, the author examines the multi-level structure and real function within the systems by analyzing social facts and court decisions.
