382 COMPARATIVE LAW 



the five codes which have been promulgated, the new Civil Code was 

 the first which became law under the new constitutional government, 

 and therefore, with the consent of the Diet. 



From what I have said above, it will be seen that there are three 

 stages observable in the development of the idea of law. At first, 

 publication was not essential to the binding force of the law. Laws 

 were commands addressed to the magistrates, not to the people. The 

 people were merely the passive object of the operation of laws. Next 

 comes an epoch when the laws become commands addressed to the 

 people, and publication forms an essential element of the law. People 

 become the direct object of the law, and a party, as it were, to its 

 operation. In the third and final stage, the people not only become 

 a party to the operation of the law, but a party to the making of it through 

 their representatives. 



VII. The Appearance of the Code 



The Civil Code drafted by Professor Boissonade, which became 

 law but never went into operation, was divided into the following 

 five books; namely, book i, "Persons"; book n, "Property in 

 General"; book in, "Means of Acquiring Property"; book iv, 

 "Security of Rights in personam"; and book v, "Evidence." The 

 objections which were raised against this arrangement were many, 

 some from scientific, others from practical, points of view; but it is 

 needless to mention them here. Some will appear when I come to 

 compare it with the arrangement of the new code. The framers of 

 the latter did not follow the arrangement of the first code, nor did 

 they adopt the classifications of the French or other codes based upon 

 the Institutes of Justinian. 



The new Civil Code is divided into the following five books, accord- 

 ing to the plan which German jurists call "Pandekten-System"; 

 namely, book i, "General Provisions"; book n, "Rights in rem"; 

 book in, "Rights in personam"; book iv, "Family "; and book v, 

 "Succession." One of the reasons for rejecting the so-called "Insti- 

 tutionen-System," and adopting the "Pandekten-System" was that 

 the latter system of arrangement was peculiarly suited to the present 

 state of law 7 in Japan. 



The first code, following the French Code, had no distinct portion 

 assigned to general rules applicable to all other parts. This system 

 rendered frequent repetition of the same rules necessary in different 

 parts of the code, thereby making the whole work a voluminous code, 

 containing 1762 articles; while the new code, following the Saxon 

 Civil Code and the then draft of the German Civil Code, placed at the 

 beginning all the general rules relating to persons as subjects of rights, 

 to things as objects of rights, and to facts and events by which rights 

 are acquired, lost, or transferred. This method of arrangement avoided 



