The early modern Japanese justice and administration in the type of asking for approval of upper class organ

Research Project

Project/Area Number	12620014
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Fundamental law
Research Institution	Ritsumeikan University
Principal Investigator	OHIRA Yuichi Ritsumeikan University, College of Law, Professor, 法学部, 教授 (00102161)
Project Period (FY)	2000 – 2001
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
Budget Amount *help	¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000) Fiscal Year 2001: ¥100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000) Fiscal Year 2000: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Keywords	Hyojosho / Roju / uniformity of judgements / legal precedent / lower court / legala stability / Osadamegaki / Ukagai-Shirei type of administration of justice / 伺・指令型司法 / 裁判の行政的性格 / 司法の統一性・等質性 / 自分仕置令 / 御仕置例類集 / 伺い / 伺い・指令 / 伺い行政 / 伺い・指令型行政国家 / 問答
Research Abstract	In Tokugawa period, the decision making processes in the administration of justice were constructed from the process of asking for approvals of upper class organ and from by the process of giving the approvals from it. We can call this decision making processes "Ukagai-Shirei" (asking and giving approval) type of administration of justice. The supreme court judges checked the original sentences of judgments from the lower court judges from the point of "uniformity of judgements". The supreme court judges attached importance to keeping the legal stability through giving same decision on the same kind of cases. Roju also thought the "uniformity of judgements" very important and sometimes argued with the supreme court judges on wether the reports submitted from them were compatible with Osadamegaki, the Code of Tokugawa Shogunate, and with precedents made by Roju before. Thus the Tokugawa Snogunate's legal system seeked for the "uniformity of judgments". The uniformity was very important to keep the legal stability indeed. The legal precedent, however, were the orders of Roju. The supreme court judges therefore could not make a different decision from the legal precedent, even if they thought the precedent concerned was not right. Thus the "uniformity of judgements" which was made under the system of "Ukagai-Shirei" type of administration of justice was destined to become conservative.