Comparative Law and the Civil Code of Japan (II)

Abstract

(a) As foreign laws have had a significant influence on the development of our law it is useful to drow attention to some of them. Most influenced were German, French and English law. It is not surprising that they are also the main objects of the comparative study today. These laws are at the same time great families of law. There are several families of law in the world. While there is broad agreement over the existance of these families exactly how they are defined, details varies from theory to theory. The first family is the European Continental Law, which has its origins in Roman Law. This family can be divided in two, e,g, the German law and the French law. The second family is the Anglo-American law. One of the drafters of our Civil Code, Hozumi, also referred to the "Great families of law"I. He classifies seven great families of laws. (i) the family of Chinese law, (ii) the family of Hindu law, (iii) the family of Mohammed law, (iv) the family of Roman law, (v) the family of Germanic law, (vi) the family of Slavonic law and (vii) the family of English law. This classification is not inviolable as Hozumi did not intend for it to be exhaustive or exclusive2.