CULTURAL AND EMPIRICAL STUDY IN THE USE OF LITIGATION

1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 07452001
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Fundamental law
• Research Institution: THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
• Principal Investigator: ROKUMOTO Kahei THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO,GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LAW AND POLITICS,PROFESSOR, 大学院・法学政治学研究科, 教授 (70009827)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): OZAKI Ichiro HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY,LAW FACULTY,ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, 法学部, 助教授 (00233510) ; OTA Shozo THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO,GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LAW AND POLITICS,PROFESSOR, 大学院・法学政治学研究科, 教授 (40152136) ; KASHIWAGI Noboru THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO,GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LAW AND POLITICS,PROFESSOR, 大学院・法学政治学研究科, 教授 (20251431)
• Project Period (FY): 1995 – 1996
• Keywords: JUDICIAL STATISTICS, / LEGAL CULTURE, / LAW USING BEHAVIOR, / CIVIL LITIGATION

Research Abstract

In this study, we planned a field research based on the question if the recent extraordinary increase in civil litigation rate signifies a qualitative change in the Japanese legal culture. We took the Tokyo District Court and two Summary Courts within its jurisdiction, took samples of ordinary civil litigation cases filed with those courts in the years 1990 and 1993, and examined the court records of those cases to see the nature of the disputes and the ways in which they are handled in court.
From the analysis of the very informative data thus obtained we have come to the following tentative observations.
(1)The recent radical increase in the number of Summary Court cases are accounted for mainly by debt collection cases arising out of consumer credit contracts. (2)within those cases there is an increasing shift from locally based, personal credit relations to more widely operating impersonal credit relations. (3)In Summary Court cases, not Practicing Attorneys, but specialized staff members of plaintiff credit companies dominate the proceedings. (4)Corresponding to the increase in the case loads, the increase in the weight of conciliation and withdrawal (informal settlement) is observed in Summary Courts, whereas in District Court the rate of decision for the plaintiff increases, thus suggesting a Summary Court like function of DC.(5)Finally, from the above, we can observe that the recent tendencies of litigation rate does not stem from changes in the legal culture within the everyday social relations among the citizens, and therefore, does not necessarily reflect the qualitative change of their nature or the spread of lawyers' service into this area.