Dear members,
We would like to draw your attention to a special lecture. In cooperation with the Juristische Studiengesellschaft based in Karlsruhe, our member of the Board of Trustees
Prof. Tomoaki Kurishima, LL.M.
University of Saitama (Japan)
will give a lecture on the topic
“The Debate on the Amendment of the Japanese 'Peace Constitution'”
on
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 at 5.30 p.m.
in the foyer of the Federal Court of Justice.
About the Speaker:
Tomoaki Kurishima studied law at Keio University in Tokyo (LL.B. 2012; LL.M. 2014). During his doctoral studies, he spent two years as a DAAD scholarship holder at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, where he obtained a Magister legum (LL.M.) in 2017. After working as an assistant professor at Keio University for one year, he has held a professorship in public law at Saitama University since 2019. From April 2023, he was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Augsburg for one year, where he gave a lecture on comparative constitutional law. His research also focuses on comparative constitutional law, with a particular interest in constitutional jurisdiction and the protection of fundamental rights in Germany and Japan.
About the topic:
Since its proclamation 78 years ago, the Japanese constitution has not been amended once: This makes it the longest unchanged constitution in the world today. In Japanese politics, however, no topic has been discussed as persistently and controversially as constitutional reform. Whenever constitutional reform is put on the political agenda by (right-wing) conservative forces, the main issue is whether Article 9 of the constitution, which prohibits the use of any kind of military force, should be amended. Such an amendment is rejected by the left-liberal population and some constitutional experts. Regardless of this, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), founded in 1954, enjoy the overwhelming support of more than 90% of the population. But how is the existence of the JSDF justified under constitutional law? Why is there still so much resistance to the constitutional reform? As strange as the debate about Article 9 and constitutional reform may sound at first, it is important for understanding the Japanese constitution and Japan's political development.
Registration here is mandatory for security reasons.
We kindly ask you to bring this invitation and your identity card with you to the security check at the entrance to the Federal Court of Justice.
