SELF-EVALUATION (Interim Report [May, 2007])

Current Achievements

As this research necessitates maintaining regular research activities via a large international network and was the first joint research project of its kind, at first we foresaw that there would be many problems from the outset. However, thanks to the generous and enthusiastic cooperation and academic knowledge of several scholars in several countries, we have established an effective network from the inaugural year and were able to prepare and hold the first international symposium within a relatively short time frame. Each international symposium received favorable reviews, and especially in Germany, the number of scholars expressing their enthusiasm and wishing to participate is increasing. We hope to expand the project as far as possible from now on and encourage the participation of young researchers and a vigorous exchange of opinions and ideas.
It will be necessary to foster support and trust on a regular basis among national researchers by supporting and developing a network of scholars. Through this research project we hope to foster contacts and support relationships through regular communication with individual researchers at the national level via the Nagoya and Freiburg centers by developing trust and relationships, and by having an excellent level research related competence in both these centers' staffs. Currently, the relatively smooth progress of the research has been due to not only the mutual trust between researchers, but also largely dependent on the teamwork of the research assistants supporting this.
The research center in Freiburg has been essential to this project and has in innumerable instances helped us through its cooperation in a number of ways, from Professor Stumer, to the university and its law department.
Any problems that were envisioned at the outset have largely been resolved thanks to the cooperation of a great number of people.

Academic Assessment of our Research's Results and its Ripple Effect in Related Fields

As the objective of our research, we want to create a new way to study and research comparative law and create a network of scholars concerned with case law in their respective countries in order to build a way to exchange actual legal data related mainly to international business cases. Before this network existed, we were unable to deepen our mutual understanding in such a comprehensive and systematic way. It continues to be shown that this methodology is rich in possibilities and is extremely useful in the field of comparative law research. This research allows us to not only exchange international information, hold dialogues to discover problems and develop research methods, but also provides us with an opportunity to re-evaluate national legal systems again. It is also becoming evident that the basic problems in recent legal issues are caused fundamentally by the complicated historical backgrounds, differences in thinking and the like, which cannot be addressed in isolation.
In the U.S.A. and in Europe, there exists a network of individual academic contacts created through study meetings, individual symposiums and so on, but a network like our projects organized specifically for research purposes does not exist. Thus our project is attracting attention abroad. We can achieve considerable progress from now on in Japan in the field of comparative law research and education through continuing to develop such methodologies, especially in developing a national organized system for comparative law research.

• Research Progress
• Self-Evaluation
• Plan after Fiscal Year 2007