378 COMPARATIVE LAW 



comparative study of law, which may be called the genealogical 

 method, to distinguish it from the other three, has the advantage, 

 among many others, of combining the historical with the compar- 

 ative method. 



IV. Great Families of Law 



If, in order to take the genealogical method of comparison, 

 we classify the laws existing at present in different parts of the 

 world, we shall find that there are at least seven Great Families 

 of Laws; namely, (1) the Family of Chinese Law, (2) the Family of 

 Hindu Law. (3) the Family of Mohammedan Law, (4) the Family 

 of Roman Law, (5) the Family of Germanic Law, (6) the Family 

 of Slavonic Law, and (7) the Family of English Law. I have called 

 these groups the "Great Families of Laws," because this classification 

 is not meant to be exhaustive or exclusive. There are many smaller 

 branches of law, not belonging to any of the above mentioned 

 families, which are, none the less, very important for the genealog- 

 ical method of comparative study, but for the purpose of the present 

 lecture they need not be mentioned here. 



V. The Position of the Japanese Civil Code among Legal Systems 



of the World 



I have been at some length in explaining this method of com- 

 parative jurisprudence, in order to show the position of the new 

 Japanese Civil Code in the general legal history of the world. Since 

 the first introduction of Chinese civilization into our country, and 

 the consequent Reform of the Taika Era (646 A. D.), the work of 

 which was completed by the publication of the famous Taiho Code 

 in 701 A. D., Japanese law has belonged to the family of Chinese law 

 for more than one thousand six hundred years; and notwithstanding 

 many great changes in the laws and institutions of the country 

 which have taken place since that time, the basis of Japanese laws 

 and institutions has always been Chinese moral philosophy, together 

 with the custom of ancestor-worship and the feudal system. 



The Criminal Code (Shin-ritsu-koryo), which was published in 

 1870, three years after the Restoration of 1868, was modeled upon 

 the Chinese Codes of Tang, Min, and Shin Dynasty, with certain 

 modifications suggested by old Japanese laws. Only three years 

 later, that code was revised, and a new code was published under the 

 title of the Revised Criminal Code (Kaitei-Ritsurei). In the framing 

 of that new code, some European codes, especially the French, 

 were consulted and adopted to a certain extent. Now these two 

 codes mark the transition period in the history of Japanese law. 

 The former was the last in the Chinese, and the latter the first in 



