Today, our society is regulated and constituted by numerous – in fact, almost uncountable numbers of – statutory and case laws. The primary goal of the education at the Faculty of Law, however, is not to teach students all of those laws. Our goal should not be unrealistic or unprincipled. It is to impart to students the fundamental knowledge about the basic laws (e.g. constitutional law and civil law) as well as politics. Rather than being crammed minute rules and decrees at random, students acquire a characteristic way of thinking to analyze and construct a variety of societal issues from the perspective of the fundamental principles of law and politics.

Once earnest students have learned the basic framework of the issues and the argumentative structure of legal reasoning, they can apply those essential legal understandings even to reformed statutes and rules: they would no longer stumble over each of the newly enacted laws. Equipped with this kind of way of thinking or “legal mind,” they would be able to examine and understand the problems consistently and fairly and to reach rational conclusions with a good balance of advantages and disadvantages.

In this manner, studying law and politics is the process of cultivating the abilities to grasp the essential points of complex problems, to examine them fairly and consistently, and to explain the reasoning and conclusions concisely to other people. These faculties of thinking, judgment and expression are the indispensable capabilities when we as experts or citizens are engaged in establishment of just society. You may have some difficulty at first, but studying at the Faculty of Law will provide you with the intellectual and practical powers to make significant contributions to creating a better future world.

KUROKAMI, Naozumi