Die Reform des japanischen Zivilprozessgesetzes aus dem Jahr 2003 unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Verfahrensbeschleunigung

Abstract

This article describes the new regulations and legal institutions in the Japanese civil procedure implemented by the Reform of the Civil Procedure Act of 2003, which came into force in April 2004. Furthermore, it examines the possible use of these new regula-tions for the explicit political goal of speeding up court procedures from a practical point of view. The author assumes that the new system of planned proceedings in Art. 147-2 Civil Procedure Act may not be of great practical importance because of broad judicial discretion and the customary hesitation of Japanese judges to sanction delayed submissions. The same assumption may be applicable for the new system of pre-trial investigations in Artt. 133-2 et seq.. Civil Procedure Act as compulsory en-forcement is not provided for in case of refused disclosure. On the other hand, several other changes that are closer to practical needs may make a stronger contribution toward expediting proceedings. The first of these changes is the system of expert com-missioners (senmon i’in), Art. 92-2 Civil Procedure Act, which gives the judge a flexible and transparent means of taking advantage of special knowledge in the various stages of the proceedings. Because there already were other systems of expert partici-pation in Japanese civil procedure, one may presume that the new system will be easily accepted by the participants in the litigation proceedings. As a change in the rules of taking evidence, the new Art. 215-2 Civil Procedure Act waives the principle of cross-examination concerning the expert (kanteinin), and stipulates that the questioning of the expert has to first be undertaken by the court. This change may lead to a tighter and more time-saving interrogation of experts. The new Art. 6 Civil Procedure Act changes the former supplementary jurisdiction to an exclusive jurisdiction for first-instance intellectual property disputes at the Tokyo and Osaka District Courts. Supported by changes in court organization, this change points to quite effective efforts to involve more special knowledge and speed up intellectual property proceedings. Finally, there were some changes in the summary court proceedings. The jurisdiction of summary courts relating to the value of the claim was raised to 1,400,000 Yen and a new “order instead of settlement” (wakai ni kawaru kettei) in Art. 275-2 Civil Procedure Act was introduced, allowing the rendering of an order to pay by installments, also in cases where the defendant has not appeared before the court.

All in all, one may assume that the recent reform of the Civil Procedure Act will support the clear tendency of speeding up civil trials in Japan in different ways; these reforms mostly rely on the willingness and efforts of the parties and the judges to realize a tighter and more expedited procedure.