Abstract
The classic work Law in Japan: The Legal Order in a Changing Society, edited by Arthur Taylor von Mehren, treats Japanese contract as a fairly uncontroversial field of positive law.1 In that volume, Professor Takeyoshi Kawashima's chapter on dispute resolution was destined to become widely read outside Japan, but Charles Stevens's later translation of another of Kawashima's essays was the real catalyst for the concept of a Japanese "contract consciousness" receiving wide recognition outside Japan.2 Kawashima's characterization of Japanese contracting as informal and infused with social norms was a useful counterpoint to doctrinal accounts of the Civil Code principles governing contract in Japan. More often, however, Kawashima's assessment was read as a claim that Japanese contract consciousness was unique-leading to enduring but ultimately unhelpful debates.3.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Law in Japan |
Subtitle of host publication | A Turning Point |
Publisher | University of Washington Press |
Pages | 454-482 |
Number of pages | 29 |
ISBN (Print) | 0295987316, 9780295987316 |
Publication status | Published - 2007 |
Externally published | Yes |