CDAMS
Front Page
Aims  News  Organization  Events  Publications

August 25th, 2003

Mission Statement
of Center for Legal Dynamics of Advanced Market Societies

1.The Purpose
2.The Background
3.The Study of Legal Dynamics
4.CDAMS' Plan for Research and Education
5.Invitation to Younger Scholars

1. The Purpose

  The global expansion of market relationships in social life mandates a fundamental transformation of traditional practices and thinking in law. The mission of the Kobe University Center for Legal Dynamics of Advanced Market Societies (CDAMS) is to promote a new paradigm of legal studies that aims for a better understanding and improved regulation of contemporary market societies through law. While the potential subject matters for studying this rapid and wide sweeping social transformation are numerous, the main foci of research at CDAMS are summed up in three:

(1) the changing process of norm-generation in and through private economic transactions;

(2) the shifting character of regulatory measures from authoritative orders to those based on the adjustment and coordination of various market behaviors, and

(3) the development and diversification of conflict management practices alternative to litigations.

  CDAMS seeks to pioneer the promotion and generation of core research in the abovementioned areas of inquiry by creating a multi-disciplinary and cosmopolitan center for researchers to exchange views and ideas.

2. The Background

  Three fundamental changes in contemporary market transactions and their legal regulation motivate our research concerns:

(1) The dramatic growth in the importance of non- and supra-governmental actors in generating law and other kinds of formal norms for market transactions. For example, multinational negotiations within the scheme of World Trade Organization frequently lead to the generation of new legal norms. Lex Mercatoria, a system of customary rules that emerges gradually through daily transactions among international traders, has begun to necessitate enormous changes in domestic rules. Private but powerful corporations have come to exert a tremendous impact over market conditions, to the extent that they may now engage in a form of virtual lawmaking by strategically leveraging its privileged position in the market to set de facto market standards.

(2) The rapid diversification of agents, methods, and even the goals in regulating and coordinating market behavior. In terms of agents, for example, new public actors such as Non-Profit Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations have become increasingly influential in regulating the market. In terms of methods, professional organizations and self-regulatory organizations have become increasingly involved in devising regulatory schemes which are fine-tuned to the conditions of the specific economic activities to be regulated. In terms of regulatory goals, the rise of new social values such as environmental protection or gender equality have led to the emergence of new regulatory measures in accordance with these values.

(3) A broad transformation in the means through which private conflicts are managed. As the channels of norm generation multiply and the diversity of regulatory measures expands, the tacit assumption that the law consists of a unified system of universally accepted rules, free of bias, contradiction, or ambiguity, has increasingly become challenged. An example is the proliferation of Alternative Dispute Resolution. These schemes for resolving disputes may be seen not so much as means to complement the traditional system of courts, but rather as ways to experiment with new forms of justice, whereby individuals and groups are entitled to autonomously create a dynamic order through methods of negotiation and agreement.

3. The Study of Legal Dynamics

  CDAMS is Kobe University's COE (Center of Excellence) research and education center for the multidisciplinary study of law in contemporary market societies. Its primary aims are to research the aforementioned areas of inquiry and to educate students in those areas.

  The study of Legal Dynamics examines the law with special emphasis on the following perspectives:

  * The study of Legal Dynamics sees the law not as something stable, conclusive or determined, but as something transmuting, inconclusive, and undergoing constant modification.

  * The study of Legal Dynamics views the law to be embedded in a multiplicity and diversity of policy goals and social values. Consistent with this view, the study of Legal Dynamics explores the possibilities for integrating traditional government regulation with various measures for self-regulation such as negotiation and agreement.

  * The study of Legal Dynamics recognizes the need to incorporate the ideas of autonomous social ordering into the research and education of law and other methods of problem solving. Emphasis will be placed on theoretical and applied research as well as the practical training of practitioners in the skills of negotiation and agreement in a creative, rational, and peaceful manner.

  In sum, the study of Legal Dynamics views the law within the context of a dynamic process of private social ordering, in which the "facts" and the "norms" mutually elaborate a tentative "solution".

4. CDAMS' Plan for Research and Education

  CDAMS seeks to contribute to the multidisciplinary study of behaviors in advanced market societies. It aims to incorporate the findings from the growing body of empirical research on social norms in such areas as economics, political science, sociology, social psychology, and management science, to develop a new paradigm of legal studies. We expect that our study of Legal Dynamics will propel the creation and expansion of the much-needed dynamic knowledge of law in contemporary societies. CDAMS seeks to serve as a free forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and insights.

  The research tasks and educational services of CDAMS are specified as follows:

  * To study the empirical realities of norm generation, market regulation, and conflict management, both in Japan and abroad.

  * To utilize the fruits of the empirical research to develop applied theories of the dynamics of the legal order of contemporary market societies through multidisciplinary collaboration.

  * To integrate these empirical and applied theories into a new comprehensive and multidisciplinary paradigm of legal studies.

  * To identify the skills and abilities that practitioners should acquire within the changing social context in such fields as private lawmaking, commercial transaction, and conflict management. The Graduate School of Law of Kobe University will launch a new course of "Legal Practice Education Program" for educating lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and other law practitioners in Spring, 2004. While the research findings of CDAMS will be developed and applied in collaboration with the new program, the results will be made available to broader public.

  * To provide educational opportunities for young researchers on the emerging order of the market societies. They will be trained to contribute globally to the growing knowledge of law and the behavioral and social sciences. The international exchange of ideas and insights among graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and academics affiliated with CDAMS will also be promoted.

5. Invitation to Younger Scholars

  CDAMS welcomes the participation of researchers and students of all academic strands from all over the world willing to collaborate in the endeavor of pioneering the study of Legal Dynamics. Kobe University, a highly respected research center of law, management science, economics, medical science, technology, and the natural sciences, is pleased to offer its rich intellectual resources to support a wide spectrum of research projects. CDAMS will provide excellent opportunities for study and career development, especially for younger researchers and students.

Kobe University, Graduate School of Law

send your comments and suggestions.