| This paper intends to reconstruct the historical process of integrating the civil and common law traditions, which resulted in the present difficulties, by taking up as an example the founder of the Japanese case studies Suehiro Izutarô (1888-1951), who combined his integration efforts with an aspiration to achieve justice scientifically. Subsequently, after a short biography of Suehiro (II.), his case studies (III.) will be introduced. After that his concept of law, integrating common and civil law elements by instrumentalizing sociological theories (IV.), and the methodological inconsistencies resulting from this instrumentalization (V.) will be analyzed. Based on this analysis, it will be shown that the ‘extra legal’ reasons, why his integration effort was successful nevertheless can be found in some political effects of Suehiro’s approach, facilitating the preferences of the contemporary political elite to limit the impact of the imported Western law (VI.). Finally the consequences of this approach for democracy (VII.) will be discussed. |