1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

International Comparative Study on Cartel Crime

Research Project

Project/Area Number	09620053
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Criminal law
Research Institution	HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator	SAINO Hikoya Hokkaido University, Faculty of Law, Professor, 法学部, 教授 (00162248)
Project Period (FY)	1997 – 1999
Keywords	Economic crime / Cartel / Collusion / Anti-trust law / Extra-territorial / Effect theory
Research Abstract	My research is aiming at substantial improvement of criminal regulatory power for less competitive conducts in Japan. For this purpose, I studied on criminal regulations of developed countries including the US, France, Italy and Germany. In the first year of this project, I found out the fact that the provisions of collusion crime in France and Italy were taking after the Sherman Act of the US before WWII. The provision of collusive conduct at #96-3 of the Criminal Statute which was amended in 1941 were under the influence of Italian and French law. This history shows that Japan had already before WWII the primitive provision of cartel crime. As the result, I concluded that #96-3 of Criminal Statute is a special regulation to the present provision of #89 of Anti-trust Law concerning to punishment of cartel conduct in general. In the second year, I surveyed the 'effect theory' of the US, and the capability of introducing this theory in Japanese regal system and conclude that in extra-territorial cases this theory is not only applicable but also versatile also in Japan. In the last third year, I continued to study extra-territorial cases, particularly e-commerce area including digital signature. I made some suggestions on the new regulations of digital signature to Japanese Government. I was also interested in the theoretical aspect of relationship between intellectual right and anti-trust policy which is topically shown in Microsoft Inc. case