Europe and Asia as a Legal Area for Fundamental Rights

This book explores the possibility of an Asian legal sphere based on the model of Europe. It features articles written by leading experts from Europe and Asia. After centuries of violent conflicts, Europe began a process of integration which leads to 75 years of peace and a community with the common values of freedom, fundamental rights, and the rule of law. But the circumstances that lead to the unification of Europe differ from current-day Asia: Besides the huge economic gaps between neighboring countries and a wide variety of political forms of government, Asia also does not share the unifying narrative of post-WWII Europe.


From an economic point of view, Asia is a highly developed region; despite the differences between the political systems, the region has grown together—economically and in recent times also politically. However, the legal systems of the respective countries have not created the necessary conditions for a peaceful coexistence. Can Europe be a model for Asia? Based on the history and development of the European unification process, this book asks the question to what extent Asia can look to Europe as a model and what lessons can be learned.

Masahisa Deguchi is Professor of Civil Procedural Law at the Faculty of Law, Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto/Japan). He studied Civil Procedural Law at Chuo University and Freiburg University (Germany). He attained his Master of Laws (Keio University 1988) and Doctor of law (University of Freiburg 1991) through the DAAD-Scholarship.


He was researching as Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Freiburg(1994-1995, 2007), Regensburg(2015) and Cologne(2015). He received the JaDe-Price [Die Stiftung zur Förderung japanisch-deutscher Wissenschafts- und Kulturbeziehungen in Köln] in 2002.
 In 2006, he received the Cross of Merit on the ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland).

He was Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Law School (2002) and University of Washington Law School in USA (2002). He has been Board Member of Notarial Law in Japan (since 2005), he was Member of Disciplinary Committee at Kyoto Bar Association (2007-2009), and he was Vice President of the International Association of Procedural Law (2007-2015) and has been Honorary Vice President of International Association of Procedural Law (since 2015). He was Visiting Scholar at the Renmin University (2010). He is Member of Examination Committee of Attorney at Law at Kyoto Bar (2011-2019). He was Member of Judicial State Examination in Japan (2012). He is Presidium Member of the Freiburg Alumni and Board Member of Alumni Freiburg e.V. (since 2016). He was Visiting Professor at  National Taiwan University in Taiwan (2016). He was Visiting Professor at  National Chengchi University in Taiwan (2018). 

His fields of research are Civil Procedural Law, Civil Enforcement Law, Civil Injunction Law, Comparative Law, EU-law, and German Law. 


Kimio Yakushiji is Professor Emeritus at the School of Law, Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto, Japan). In 1974, he graduated from the School of Law, Kyoto University, and studied the Public International Law master course (L.L.M.) and the doctorate course of the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University (completed the doctoral program having fulfilled the credits in 1979). He then became an assistant professor at Kyoto University, an associate professor of Kobe Institute of Mercantile Marine, then, an associate professor and a professor at College of Law and School of Law, and vice-president of Ritsumeikan University and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU). During this period, he served as one of the assistants of Special Rapporteur Motoo Ogiso on the topic of Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property (1990-1991) of the ILC, and then as one of the legal advisors to the Japanese Delegations to the UN’s Conference of the Ad Hoc Committee on Jurisdictional Immunities of the States and their Property (2002, 2003, 2004). He also served as president of the Japan International Human Rights Law Association (2003-2006) and president of the Japanese Society of International Law (2012-2014). From 2011 to 2017, he was a member of the Committee on Enforced Disappearance.