Episode 30

This article explains the legal system. Legal systems are divided into case law and statutory law. Case law is also known as Anglo-American law. Statutory law is also known as civil law and has its origins in Roman law.
Case law systems are characterized by precedent binding, whereby decisions made in earlier court cases bind decisions made in later court cases.
The source of law in statutory systems is statutory law. judicial precedent complements statutory law and is not precedent binding.
Japan followed a case law system until the Edo period. When conducting trials at the magistrate's office, they would consult past court records and make decisions based on similar cases.
Many countries around the world were once colonized by European powers. After independence, such countries are susceptible to the influence of their former colonial masters as they modernize.
Japan has never been a colony, so when the Meiji government was building a new national system, it visited major European countries (Britain, France, and Germany) and, after independently selecting and rejecting the systems of each country, adopted a statutory law system. Japan is the only country in the world with such a history.
In Japan, a "judicial precedent" refers to a judgment that "contains legal opinions that should be applied to other cases" (Supreme Court, 1951 (A) No. 3474, Decision of the First Petty Bench, February 12, 1953, Criminal Cases, Vol. 7, No. 2, p. 211).
In Japan, "judicial precedent" is not binding, and "all judges shall be independent in the exercise of their conscience and shall be bound only by this Constitution and the law" (Article 76, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution). "Judges shall follow their conscience, as stated in Article 76, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution, means that judges shall follow their own inner good sense and moral sense, without succumbing to external pressure or temptation, whether tangible or intangible" (Supreme Court, 1947 (Re) No. 337, Grand Bench Decision, November 17, 1948, Criminal Cases, Vol. 2, No. 12, p. 1565).