The current challenge for evidence-based policy making (EBPM) held in the Japanese government lacks clear definition and scope of application in itself. By reconsidering the practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) as a source of EBPM, and comparing between the two ideas, the author indicates that EBPM shall not correspond to clinical practice on each individual patient, but to the research process in EBM, as to design and practice clinical trials, evaluate them to establish treatment guidelines which shall be respected prima facie in the medical practices. From this viewpoint, the author tried to lead some lesson against the Japanese EBPM practice on its limits and standards in evaluation, as to be unassertive in making policy to have wide and unpredictable influence over human rights, to incorporate cancellation conditions on policies to realize suppression effects, and to respect comparative legal studies.

抄録全体を表示

In Japanese tort law, the definition of invasion privacy are based on Prossers’ theory (Prosser, Privacy, 48, Cal. L. Rev. 383, 1960) and ‘Utage no Ato’ case (Tokyo.1964); 1. Disclose plaintiff's personal information which is private, secret and unknown. 2. Intrusion into the private sphere.
　Some recent cases and theories start to argue that collecting personal information would be invaded privacy. However, in the strict sense, collecting itself will not be able to cause any harm. For example, in other words, Taking picture dose always cause damage to people? There are other requirement should be necessary for remedy from invasion of privacy.
　Nonetheless, cases are still happened. Does collecting personal information itself invade privacy? This article studies the question from torts view, theory and cases.

抄録全体を表示

The purpose of this article is to revisit the argument of the "Re-examination of the Scope of Illegal Downloading" of the contemplated revision of the Japanese Copyright Act in order to contribute to a better understanding of an important area of intellectual property law and information law.
　The expansion of the scope of illegal downloading was primarily understood as a countermeasure to combat "piracy", especially targeting unauthorized dissemination of "manga" contents on the internet. However, the regulation of the proposed bill prepared by the Agency for Cultural Affairs was so extensive that it would have had a serious chilling effect on the collection of information in our everyday activities. Although a number of committee members expressed strong reservations about the proposal, the council report was finalized.
　During the examination process within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the circumstances repeatedly shifted because of the wide-ranging opposition from various creators including the Japan Cartoonists Association. Amid the resulting political turmoil, the submission of the bill was finally postponed.
　This author was involved both in the discussion at the committee under the council and the lobbying of several LDP politicians. Based on this direct experience, this article reviews the current state of the rule-making process and identifies various problems related to this issue. By doing so, the author would like to present lessons for the future policy-making and rule-making in the area of intellectual property law and information law.

抄録全体を表示

Because of the need to protect network-connected industries, especially critical infrastructures, and in order to respond to new forms of cyberattacks such as those using botnets, the German legislature has proposed another unauthorized access offense (StGB §202e) in addition to the existing StGB §202a. Compared to its predecessor, StGB §202e does not require that one overcomes a security measure to be applicable; it also has clauses that increase punishment in certain circumstances: acting for a fee, or acting for the purpose of impairing the function of critical infrastructures. German legal scholars also recognize the necessity of reforming to some extent current criminal law statutes to apply to the new forms of cybercrime, and this new statute would certainly make acts punishable that remain unpunishable under current criminal statutes. However, many opponents object the proposed StGB §202e because the punitive scope of this new offense is so broad that there is a major risk of punishing daily and unharmful acts. The discussions pertaining to StGB §202e in Germany illuminate some key points for creating appropriate regulations to prevent cyberattacks in Japan. In this article, I introduce the discussion about this theme to obtain some valuable information concerning Japanese cybercrime legislation.

抄録全体を表示

Two types of new disasters threaten world safety in recent years: natural disasters of unheard of proportions, such as major earthquakes and massive floods, and terrorist attacks as man-made disasters. Such a trend is obvious, especially in large cities, and Japan, with the Tokyo metropolitan area as one of most populous cities of the world, also faces this problem. It is an urgent task with people living in modern cities to update the recognition of and establish a new approach to homeland security. The simultaneous terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 turned the threat of urban disasters by terrorist attacks into reality and fundamentally changed the homeland security laws in the U.S. On the other hand, reflection on the poor response to Hurricane Katrina at the end of August 2005 led to strengthening of the federal disaster response including natural disasters. This article surveys the response of U.S. federal agencies in times of disaster from the perspectives of both the National Security Law and the Disaster Law. The relationship between federal disaster response and information control is also considered.

抄録全体を表示

This article studies the concept of “ the right to know” that has been used for a long time in the territories of constitutional law and media law, from the viewpoint of the current situation.
　In the society so far, this concept has been used exclusively by the mass media. However, in the modern age, digital platforms including search engines have emerged as competitors.
　In this context, this article argues two aspects of the concept of “ right to know” in the big data/AI era by revealing the essence of the concept based on two Supreme Court’s decisions.

抄録全体を表示

This study includes 1) Introduction 2) The analysis of a contract about privacy from the viewpoint of substantive law, 3) The analysis of a contract about privacy from the viewpoint of procedural law, 4) The future discussion point of a contract about privacy. In Vol. (6), analysis of 'privacy contract' is continually discussed from the viewpoint of procedural law, especially administrative procedural law.

抄録全体を表示

News reporting, particularly investigative reporting, is a fundamental element for democratic society. However, nowadays in the post-truth age, news coverage from the perspective of resistance to power as a watchdog or protection of vulnerable groups is sometimes criticized as mendacious or biased reporting. Instead of focusing on objectivity or truth, this paper examines reporting ethics or standards which justify reporting when it is difficult to establish its truth clearly.
　Section 1 suggests that reporting ethics might be distinguished from professional ethics, considering discussions about professions in previous research. In addition, it argues that reporting ethics is a part of journalism ethics, considering on philosophical approaches which have appeared as means of overcoming the limitation of the social responsibility theory. Section 2 pursues how reporters should make judgments when they are confronted with serious ethical problems of reporting news from philosophical perspectives, referring especially to discussions about judgment by Immanuel Kant and Hannah Arendt, which emphasized the importance of thinking from the standpoint of others through Common Sense. Section 3 proposes that the balancing approach, which is often found in legal judgments and used as the principle to weigh competing interests or rights of the interested parties, can be applied as the ethics of news reporting. Finally, this paper concludes that the balancing approach would be a ground for justifying investigative reporting when it is difficult to substantiate its truth, for instance when internal or confidential documents are revealed by whistleblowers.

抄録全体を表示