The aim of the project is a comparative analysis of changes in jurisprudence in Germany and Japan in the period from 1930 to around 1955. As its central question, it explores how legal scholars in the two countries positioned themselves in the context of political authoritarianism and totalitarianism, discrimination and persecution, and the establishment of a wartime regime. Studies on individual subdisciplines of law demonstrate that in both countries, legal scholarship played a significant role in supporting the regime and transforming the legal system in line with the prevailing ideology. Further comparative analysis of the role of jurisprudence during the period of occupation after 1945 seeks to identify its contribution to the transition to a post-war democratic order.

The project is conducted in cooperation with Prof. Naoko Matsumoto of Sophia University (Tokyo). In the resulting comparative anthology, the authors of the Japanese and German parts engage with each other’s texts so as to highlight the similarities as well as the differences between the two regimes and the positions assumed by legal scholars. The comparison is bound to produce insights for legal scholarship with the potential to advance the debate in both countries. Publication in English will make the results accessible to audiences that previously focused their research on only one of the two countries and had limited insight into literature on the other country.