376 COMPARATIVE LAW 



the introduction of Chinese civilization into the country. The next 

 great codification, the framing of the Joyei Shikimoku in 1232 A. D. 

 under the Hojo Regency, was necessitated by the great political and 

 social changes which had taken place since the establishment of 

 the feudal system under the military government of the Shoguns. 

 The new Japanese Civil Code is, as I have explained above, the 

 result of the revolution which followed the opening of the country to 

 foreign intercourse. Thus, each of the three great epochs in Japanese 

 history, the introduction of Chinese civilization, the establishment of 

 feudalism, and the introduction of Western civilization, has been 

 followed by codification. The chief object of the Taiho Code, belong- 

 ing to the first period, was innovation; that of the Joyei Shikimoku, 

 belonging to the second period, was pacification; while the framing 

 of the new Civil Code had for its objects innovation and unification 

 as well as simplification. 



III. Methods of Comparative Jurisprudence 



Looked at from another point of view, the new Japanese Civil 

 Code may be taken as an illustration of the effect which the contact 

 of Western with Eastern civilization has produced on the laws and 

 institutions of the country. In this respect I must first say a few 

 words as to the methods of comparative jurisprudence. Hitherto 

 there have been three methods of comparison in vogue. One of them 

 takes the law of a particular state as the unit of comparison, and 

 comparing with it the laws of different states, finds similarities and 

 divergencies among them, and deduces from them certain principles 

 of law. This is the method generally adopted by jurists. In France, 

 for instance, where comparative law is studied with greatest zeal, 

 valuable materials for this method of investigation are furnished by 

 the publications of the laws of different countries in the Bulletin 

 and Annuaire of the "Socie'te" de Legislation Compared," and by 

 the numerous translations of foreign codes by Foucher, Antoine 

 Saint-Joseph, Lehr, Dareste, Grasserie, Leve", Turrel, Prudhomme, 

 Lepelle"tier, and other eminent jurists. 



There are others, who, perceiving that there are common features 

 in the laws of each race, take a wider basis for their investigation 

 and make the laws of particular races the units of comparison, and 

 compare the one with the other. 



There are others, again, who take a still wider basis, and com- 

 pare legal phenomena of different peoples without regard to nation- 

 ality or race. 



Of these three methods, the first may compare, for instance, Eng- 

 lish law with French, the second Germanic laws with Slavonic laws, 

 while the third takes up, perhaps, the marriage laws and customs 



