Jog a középkori Japánban

Abstract

Learning about a culture by analysing the legal system of the state coulddeepen our understanding of that country, in the present case, Japan. Thereare already countless researches conducted on the current legal system orconstitution of Japan in Hungary, as well as in other Western countries. However, there is not much information about the legal system of the historicalperiods of Japan. Nevertheless, these historical periods should not be forgotten. For example, in medieval Japan a new legal system was born. It was freefrom foreign influence and bared marks of the social structure and customsof that period. This legal system was called bukehō 武家法, “law of thewarrior families”. The purpose of my research is to present the Kamakura 鎌倉 period’s bukehō, an independent legal system established by the warriorclass. I researched the subject as a scholar student in Japan, principally usingJapanese language materials.In my paper, first I introduce the development of the Kamakura shogunateand its main offices. In the next section, I examine the characteristics of themedieval Japanese law in general. In the last part, I focus on the bukehō ofthe Kamakura period. I look at the various rules and features of several areasof law such as sources of law, civil and penal law, and the types of lawsuits.