RESEARCH NECESSITY

Status of the field as background of this research project

Today international commercial litigation and international arbitration are main elements of the legal system for transnational business dispute resolution. In 1958 the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, the New York Convention, was ratified by many countries and in addition individual countries tended to adopt the UNCITRAL Model Law by incoporating it into their domestic arbitration law. This development accelerated considerably an international harmonization of transnational civil procedure. On the other hand effective transnational business litigation is extremely difficult due to differences among countries in historical background of legal procedure, judicidial system, lawyer system and legal thinking as well as a considerable lack of information on the status quo of legal systems in other countries, a premise for effective dispute resolution by court.
From 2000-2003, the leader of this research project, Professor Dr. Masanori Kawano, was one of the seven members of the working group of the American Law Institute (ALI) and UNIDROIT (the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) joint project, participating in the development of the draft of the "Principles and Rules of Transnational Civil Procedure". The major objective of the study was to clarify the basic principles of civil procedure, with the aim of harmonizing countries' legal systems regarding transnational business lawsuits. In 2003, the working group compiled a report on the study results, accomplishing its mission. However, a framework for acquiring legal information necessary for effective transnational business litigation does not exist yet.

The development of this original research idea

The grant-in-aid applicant and leader of this project, Professor Dr. Masanori Kawano, has, as mentioned above, participated in the joint project of the ALI and UNIDROIT and contributed to the development of the draft of the "Principles and Rules of Transnational Civil Procedure" - a project with the basic concept to harmonize countries' legal systems regarding transnational business lawsuits. Civil procedure is closely connected with a country's judicial system and legal thinking, which makes it difficult to "unify" such elements internationally. For realizing an effective resolution of disputes arising from transnational business transactions, the joint project aimed at the creation of a “universal” set of procedural rules and principles that would be adopted globally for attaining the goal of 'harmonization', i.e. to reduce differences among national legal systems. Therefore, as a next step, the need for a system for the sharing, research and analysis of legal information on an international scale to realize effective transnational business litigation was recognized. Such a system is nonexistent. In the United States for example only big law firms have the structure and assets to collect and analyze necessary information. However, a fair, accurate and neutral organization doesn't exist.
Based on this viewpoint the need to establish a neutral, academic institution that could share, analyze, research and constantly provide important legal information on an international scale became clear.

Reason for applying for a grant-in-aid for creative scientific research / Research priority

The establishment of a system for the sharing, research and analysis of legal information on an international scale to realize effective transnational business litigation and to grasp a new research method is indispensable in a rapidly globalizing world.
In response to such a social revolution and globalization, Japan for example promotes a judicial reform and the establishment of Law Schools as a new system of legal education. However, steps taken for the internationalization of the administration of justice are not enough. Despite globalization of social and economic activities, attempts of rapid and efficient dispute resolution in Japan are still rare. While in Europe various EU reforms are progressing, and the competitive relation with the United States becomes a major issue, there exists no comprehensive and systematic study on such problems in Japan.
Based on above situation a research project for establishing a framework to realize effective transnational business litigation is of absolute importance. This research is an attempt to deal with such 'urgent' problems and to find a new research direction.

• Research Purpose
• Research Necessity