Our Institute

(Last Updated : 1 / October / 2014)

The Institute of Comparative Law was organized at the School of Law in 1958.
The institute's mission is to make great contributions to legal studies in Japan and abroad through comparative legal research.
The institute has been providing legal researches of comparative law and introducing Japanese law abroad.
Also, the Library of the Institute has been collecting a large number of foreign legal resources, especially statutes, cases, and law reviews.

[For more information, brochure 2014 (PDF)].

Year Events
2009 Lecture series of the Institute of Comparative Law Project "Theoretical and Practical issues facing comparative law research in the new millennium" were held.
Two symposiums were jointly held by Waseda Institute for Corporation Law and Society and the Institute of Comparative Law.
(1) New Era of Comparative Law: Challenging for Civil Society and Harmonization of Law
(2) The Global Economic Crisis and Role/Function of Employment and Labour Law: A Comparative Law Perspective
2008 The 50th anniversary of the Institute of Comparative Law. Memorial ceremony and public Lectures were held.
(1) East Asia Maritime Law Forum 2008
(2) Perspectives of Medical Law under the Challenges of Modern Biotechnology
2007 Commemorative lectures of the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Comparative Law were held.
(1) History of Comparative Study over the Concept of Freedom and its Contemporary Phase
(2) Legal Terminology in the Era of Globalization-Comparative Studies on Legal Transplant in Europe and East Asia
2005 Academic Exchange Agreement with University College London was signed.
2004 Academic Exchange Agreement with Korea Legislation Research Institute was signed.
2003 Academic Exchange Agreement with Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law was signed.
2001 Academic Exchange Agreement with Tsinghua University School of Law, China was signed.
The institute's project "The New Stage of Comparative Law Study: Reception and Transplantation of Legal System started.
A party and lecture meetings will be held in honor of the publication of "Waseda University Series of Japanese Legal Studies" in Beijing in September.
2000 Academic Exchange Agreement with Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law Freiburg/Germany was signed.
1999 'Waseda University Series of Japanese Legal Studies' were published.
1998 Commemorative International Symposium 'Free Market and Legal Regulation'was held on the occasion of 40th anniversary.
The first volume of 'Waseda Proceedings of Comparative Law' was published.
1997 Academic Exchange Agreement with Duke University was signed. Joint Research Program started.
1996 Academic Exchange Agreement with University of Melbourne was signed. Joint Research Program started.
1993 Academic Exchange Agreement with Chinese Academy of Social Science was signed.
Joint Research Program started.
1992 Joint Research Program with Moscow State University started.
1988 Commemorative Essays 'Law in East and West' were published on the occasion of the 30th anniversary.
1981 The first volume of 'Waseda Bulletin of Comparative Law' was published.
1978 Commemorative lectures 'Comparative Law and International Law' were published on the occasion of the 20th anniversary.
1970 'Comparative Research on Capitalist Law and Socialist Law' started.
1964 Monographs by the Institute Members,"Studies of the Institute of Comparative Law" were first published.
The first volume of the Institute's journal 'Comparative Law Review' was published.
1963 Joint Research 'The Influence of Foreign Laws on the Modernization of Japan' started. (-1970)
1958 Institute of Comparative Law was established.