法意識研究のモデル
1984 年 1984 巻 36 号 p. 14-23,279
詳細
1984 年 1984 巻 36 号 p. 14-23,279
For many years Japanese legal scholars have been interested in the topic of legal consciosness. Underlying this widespread interest is an undeniable fact that Japanese legal behavior is very unique in comparison with the rest of the world. However to explain this uniqueness is not an easy task. So far the most persuasive model to do so has been what I cal a time-lag model. It assumes that legal consciousness of a particular society is basically a function of its socio-economic structure, but that at the particular historical moment this correspondence may not prevail due to the consciousness lagging behind the rapid social change. The Japanese legal consciosness at present is said to be in this transitional stage, and therefore will yield to the new, so-called modern legal consciousness. Unfortunately this prediction fails. Japanese consciousness has been much more persistent than this model predicted it to be. The "traditional" legal consciousness still predominates even at this stage of economic development. Partly out of this failure many critical studies have appeared to offer alternative explanations. The underlying model which inhere in these studies is the one to put less emphasis on unique legal consciousness to focus more on situational factors as independent variables explaining Japanese legal behavior. Although the hypotheses presented in these studies, if considered individually, have been persuasive and contributed to our understanding of the Japanese legal behavior, they fail mostly in answering the very question why the Japanese behavior is unique. For the situational factors are not the ultimate independent variables and seem themselves to be uniquely reproduced to fit to the Japanese consciousness. Therefore we need to have a new theoretical model which grasps the society in its totality and uncovers the hidden cultural assumptions shaping the society as it is. With this wholistic perspective in mind we are able to offer plausible explanation to the legal behavior of the people in that particular society.
