Columbia was the first law school in the United States to offer courses in Japanese law. The Center for Japanese Legal Studies actively promotes research on Japanese law, aided by the country's premier collection of Japanese legal materials.
THE CENTER FOR JAPANESE LEGAL STUDIES, directed by Professor Curtis J. Milhaupt, embodies Columbia's leadership in the area of Japanese law. The Center, which celebrated its 25th anniversary during the 2004-05 academic year, creates and administers a range of research projects, academic exchanges, and informal programs designed to enhance understanding of the Japanese legal system.
The Center's current activities reflect the dynamic process of legal reform underway in Japan, reforms which touch upon virtually every aspect of Japanese society. The Center also maintains extensive ties with Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute and the Business School's Center on Japanese Economy and Business.
The Center actively promotes research on Japanese law, aided by the country's premier collection of Japanese legal materials housed in the Law School's Toshiba Library for Japanese Legal Research. Holding one of the largest collections of Japanese legal materials outside Japan, the Toshiba Library contains roughly 23,000 volumes of books and bound periodicals, of which more than 90 percent is in Japanese.
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CJLS SNAPSHOT
- Professor Curtis Milhaupt, a leading authority on Japanese Law as well as Comparative Corporate Law and Governance, teaches Japanese Law and Legal Institutions and a Seminar on Advanced Research in Japanese Law.
- Distinguished Japanese practitioners offer a Japanese Legal Documents Seminar on a biannual basis; Miyuki Ishiguro, a partner with the law firm of Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, taught this seminar in Fall 2004.
- The Toshiba Library is tended by a full-time curator, Yukino Nakashima. The Law School's collection of Japanese legal materials was launched in 1982 with a gift from the private collection of the late Jiro Tanaka, Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan between 1964 and 1973, and is considered to be among the finest private law collections in Japan.
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