Course description
In this course, students will explore the difference or unique feature of the legal system for transactions, comparing the East and West.
Both in the East and West, people are doing similar transactions such as buying a house to live in, renting an apartment unit, buying food or a daily necessity, lending money, and so on. Once some legal problem happens in such transactions, such as delay of payment, what kind of rules under the legal systems work to solve such problems? Are there any difference between East and West concerning such legal systems? Students will focus on such kinds of legal systems in this course.
Some students might imagine there must be a drastic difference between Western and Eastern legal system. There could be hundreds of years ago. But there aren’t any more. Almost all Asian countries have already imported any legal system for transactions originated in one of Western countries. All students will be able to find in the real world is the difference of practical operations or constructions of the rules, that were exactly same in origin, between East and West. The public policy, the idea of permissible unjustness, customs based on the history of society affect the differences.
Also students will find that the West is not a single jurisdiction which share same idea of legal system within the area. Such difference of ideas in the West causes the division of legal systems in Eastern countries. This difference is also an important factor to understand the real feature of the legal systems in the world, although it is one of the viewpoints of globalization.

One unit is composed of a couple of meetings. In each unit, students will read and compare two cases that the instructor choses before the meeting. One is a Japanese case and the other is American case addressing the same legal issue in a similar transaction. At the first meeting students will discuss the difference and possible reasons of the difference. Then students will prepare for presentations to pick up a case in their home countries. The instructor will help to find such cases. At the final meeting, students will make their presentations and discuss to place each case in the matrix of the East and West and the extra factors.

We will have the following units: Promises and Manifestation of Intention; Contracts and Consideration; Freedom of Contracts; Rules to nullify the Contracts; Sales of Lands and Houses; Lease of Lands and Houses.

Learning outcomes of the course
(1) Students will understand which social factors can affect the operation and construction of regal rules.
(2) Students will become able to explain their homelands’ law to be applied to daily transactions, crossing the border between Common law tradition and CIVIL LAW tradition.
(3) Students will understand Japanese Law, applying the statutory provisions of Japanese CIVIL CODE and case laws in Japan correctly.

Evaluation methods
50% presentations
50％ class presentations and discussion

Bibliography
- The instructor will give students handouts with Japanese cases translated into English by the instructor.
-Jan M. Smith, contract law: A Comparative introduction (2017)
- Martin Hogg, Promises and contract Law: Coparative Perspectives (2014)
- Basic Concepts of the Civil Law, 1 doing business in Japan, 2 (Zentaro Kitagawa ed 2004)
- Contract Law, 1 doing business in Japan 5 (Zentaro Kitagawa ed 2004)
-Property and Real Rights, 1 doing business in Japan 7 (Zentaro Kitagawa ed 2004)

Schedule
Topic 1 Sources of Transactional Law
[Section 1-a] the West (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 1-b] the East (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 1-c] Workshop & Discussion – Moodle & Zoom

We will complete each topic as following:
-We will complete each [Section] per each class hour. [Section a] and [Section b] will be “on-demand” contents on Moodle, that you have to complete within a definite period of time. Contents are composed of “Pre-Assessment” (> Students should answer questions in each content, reading book chapters listed in “Reading Assignments” and additional materials I upload via Moodle.), “Lecture-movie” and “Review Forum” (> Students must write down questions and comments on each session. Also, students should put comments each other). [Section c] will be composed of “on-demand” movie-presentations uploaded by students and “real time” discussions via Zoom.
-Students will learn general idea of each Topic (e.g. “property right” on Topic 1), at [Section a]. Students will learn considerable difference between civil law countries and common law countries, even within the West.
-Students will learn the variations of the idea of the Topic (e.g. “Property Rights” on Topic 1) in the East Asia at [Section b]. Countries in the West have mostly imported Western idea concerning legal topics. Identifying the root of the legal system (Common Law or Civil Law) helps students to understand the variations in the East. However, Roots are not everything. Tradition and cultures of the transactions in the
-Students will introduce their home country’s legal situation each other, answering to my questions, via “presentation movie”, at [Section c].

Description
We will explore types of law the lawyers in the West and East can rely on to solve a dispute by legal means. This is the basic to explore the legal aspects which have variations between the West and East, as we will do in the following topics.

Assignment
-JAN M. SMITS, CONTRACT LAW (2017) [hereinafter SMITS], pp 16-37
-Pre-Assessment: Answer a set of questions on the Moodle before [Section a] and [Section b].
-Presentation: Make and upload your presentation movie (narrated power point slides) on Moodle for [Section c].

Topic 2 Creation of Legal Relationship via Contract: Offer and Acceptance; Intention to Create Legal Relations
[Section 2-a] the West (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 2-b] the East (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 2-c] Workshop & Discussion – Moodle & Zoom

Description
We will explore how people in the West and East create legal relationship via contract, from the perspective of law.

Assignment
-SMITS, pp 41-62, pp 63-90.
-Pre-Assessment: Answer a set of questions on the Moodle before [Section a] and [Section b].
-Presentation: Make and upload your presentation movie (narrated power point slides) on Moodle for [Section c].

Topic 3 Harmonization with Property Law
[Section 3-a] the West (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 3-b] the East (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 3-c] Workshop & Discussion – Moodle & Zoom

Description
Say, Person A sells a tract of land to Person B. Although this transaction is a sale contract, it is also a transfer of Real Property by the transferor’s intention. Students will learn how lawyers in the West and East harmonize contract law with property law.

Assignment
-SJEF VAN ERP & BRAM AKKERMANS ED., PROPERTY LAW (2012), pp 844-900
-Pre-Assessment: Answer a set of questions on the Moodle before [Section a] and [Section b].
-Presentation: Make and upload your presentation movie (narrated power point slides) on Moodle for [Section c].

Topic 4 Remedies
[Section 4-a] the West (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 4-b] the East (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 4-c] Workshop & Discussion – Moodle & Zoom

Description
We will explore the legal remedies that people who have any legal claim on the contract can rely on when the contract has been breached. Students will find basic variation between the Common law and Civil law. We should explore the further variation between the West and East, observing the actual conditions of the rules in litigation cases.

Assignment
-SMITS, pp 193-228
-Pre-Assessment: Answer a set of questions on the Moodle before [Section a] and [Section b].
-Presentation: Make and upload your presentation movie (narrated power point slides) on Moodle for [Section c].

Topic 5 Legal Capacity of the Parties
[Section 3-a] the West (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 3-b] the East (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 3-c] Workshop & Discussion – Moodle & Zoom

Description
We will explore the legal capacities of the parties of any contract. Here we focus on the case of “natural” person. The people have innate capacity to do legal transactions, but could be limited the capacity by law. This limitation is aimed to protect the person who is not eligible to accept the responsibility for the result of contracts (e.g. minor, mental disorders). Here we will explore the variation in the people the society will protect between the West and East.

Assignment
-SMITS, pp 91-100
-Pre-Assessment: Answer a set of questions on the Moodle before [Section a] and [Section b].
-Presentation: Make and upload your presentation movie (narrated power point slides) on Moodle for [Section c].

Topic 6 The Principle of Good Faith and Policing Unfair Contract Terms
[Section 4-a] the West (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 4-b] the East (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 4-c] Workshop & Discussion – Moodle & Zoom

Description
Contracts could be made void by the courts, when some aspects of the contents of the contract are harmful in the society, even if the parties fully understand the contents and hope to realize them. We will explore the variations of such harmful contents between the West and East.

Assignment
-SMITS, pp 136-155
-Pre-Assessment: Answer a set of questions on the Moodle before [Section a] and [Section b].
-Presentation: Make and upload your presentation movie (narrated power point slides) on Moodle for [Section c].

Topic 7 Defining the Agreement: Formality, Interpretation and Gap Filing
[Section 3-a] the West (Lecture)
[Section 3-b] the East (Lecture)
[Section 3-c] Workshop & Discussion

Description
We will explore how people define the contents of contractual agreement. Students will find variations on the importance and construction method of the written provisions between the West and East.

Assignment
-Reading: SMITS, pp 101-117, 121-135
-Pre-Assessment: Answer a set of questions on the Moodle before [Section a] and [Section b].
-Presentation: Make and upload your presentation movie (narrated power point slides) on Moodle for [Section c].

Topic 8 Vitiating Factors
[Section 8-a] the West (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 8-b] the East (Lecture) - Moodle
[Section 8-c] Workshop & Discussion – Moodle & Zoom

Description
We will explore cases in which contract is void because the contract was closed with a defect of consent (mistake, fraud or threat). Students will find variations between the West and East, because the variation in the role of written agreement affects this topics too.

Assignment
-Reading: SMITS, pp 159-189
-Pre-Assessment: Answer a set of questions on the Moodle before [Section a] and [Section b].
-Presentation: Make and upload your presentation movie (narrated power point slides) on Moodle for [Section c].