“Science at the Bar” in Japan

Abstract

This article deals with the relevance of science within court proceedings.

The article opens by providing an overview of the relevance of and the difficulties in dealing with scientific problems in court proceedings over the last decades in Japan, and it raises the question why science, especially in regard to evidence, has received only little attention in Japanese court proceedings in comparison to other countries.

The author continues by referring to Japanese case law of recent decades in order to explain the cultural- and political-legal background of the role of science in Japanese court proceedings. Certain legal fields are pointed out in which scientific expertise is extraordinarily apparent, for example, medical malpractice lawsuits or the law of intellectual property. According to the author, the need for scientific expertise in those fields can be met in two ways, either by a specialization of the courts or by an optimized collaboration with expert witnesses. The article continues by examining the latter and illustrates different models for integrating expert witnesses in court proceedings.

Furthermore, the author differentiates between the legal and scientific implications of court decisions before ending the article with a reference to the potential of courts as “forums for science.”

(The Editors)