JAPANESE CIVIL CODE 381 



and according to reason, and in case of disobedience to the rules and 

 principles set forth in the Code, they would incur the wrath and the 

 punishment of the gods. These laws were all commands addressed to 

 the officials, not to the people. They were rules for the conduct of offi- 

 cials, not rules of conduct for the citizen. It was upon officials only 

 that law imposed the obligation to observe the rules of law in 

 their relation to the people, whether they acted in administrative 

 or in judicial capacity. The people were merely passive objects of 

 the law, and it was their part implicitly to obey the commands of 

 officials. Austin and others, who define law as a command of the 

 lawgiver, mean thereby a command addressed to, and imposing 

 obligations upon, the citizen. But in Japan, this conception was 

 only reached after the introduction of Occidental jurisprudence into 

 the country. Two legislative acts in the beginning of the present 

 reign very clearly show this transition in the nature of law. The 

 publication of the new Criminal Code, "Shinritsu Koryo," in the 

 third year of Meiji, marks the first step in the revolution of the legal 

 idea. The policy of the Tokugawa Government was based upon the 

 famous Chinese maxim, "Let people abide by, but not be apprised of, 



the law " dpf$i&;, ^ Pfl^Pxl); and went so far as to kee P tne 

 law in strict secrecy. Although the first Criminal Code was modeled 

 upon Chinese codes, the new Imperial Government took another 

 and wiser Chinese maxim, "To kill without previous instruction is 

 cruelty" (^^L^^M.^), and caused the new code to be printed 

 and published. I have said that the first Criminal Code was based 

 upon the Chinese system, and in the amended Code the French 

 Criminal Code was consulted. The comparison of the Imperial Pro- 

 clamations which form the preambles to these two codes is very 

 interesting, as showing a great change in the conception of law that 

 took place during the three years which intervened between the first 

 and the second code. In the Imperial Proclamation which is prefixed 

 to the first code, his Majesty enjoins his officials to observe the rules 

 of the Code; while in the Imperial Proclamation attached to the 

 second code, it is his subjects. as well as his officials that are so com- 

 manded. In the same year with the publication of the second code, 

 that is, 1873, a law was enacted (ordinance 68 of sixth year of Meiji) 

 in which it was declared that "henceforth every law shall, on its 

 promulgation, be posted up in convenient places during thirty days 

 for the information of the people." Since that time several laws have 

 been passed, in which the same principle is carried farther, and now 

 the publication which is made in the Official Gazette has become an 

 essential step in giving them binding force. 



We have now reached the third stage in the evolution of the idea 

 of law. At present, according to art. 37 of the constitution, every 

 law requires the consent of both Houses of the Imperial Diet. Of 



