Legislative proposal - Giinrippo

Japanese: 議員立法 - ぎいんりっぽう

Legislation based on an initiative (also called an initiation) by a member of parliament. In modern constitutionalism, the principle is that parliament has legislative power under the separation of powers, but in order for a law to be enacted, amended, or repealed, it must go through the stages of initiation, deliberation, and resolution of the bill. Regarding the right to initiate,
(1) Only recognized by the government (Cabinet)
(2) Only members of parliament can use it
(3) The right to initiate laws is granted to both the government and the Diet members. Under constitutional monarchies with strong sovereign power, the method (1) also existed, but modern parliamentary systems adopt methods (2) or (3). Of these, the method (2), which grants only the Diet members the right to initiate laws, is only adopted by the United States, which has a strict separation of powers, and a few other countries. Generally, countries that adopt a parliamentary cabinet system grant the right to initiate laws to both the government and the Diet members. In Japan, under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (Meiji Constitution), there was an explicit provision (Article 38) that granted the government and both Houses of the Diet the right to initiate laws. The current Constitution (Constitution of Japan) lacks an explicit provision regarding the right to initiate laws, and academic theories are divided as to whether the right to initiate laws is granted to the Cabinet in addition to the Diet members. Those who accept this position affirm the Cabinet's right to submit bills, since the right to submit bills granted to the Cabinet under Article 72 of the Constitution includes bills, and since Ministers of State also serve as Diet members under a parliamentary Cabinet system, those who reject this position argue that an initiative is part of legislation, and since legislative power belongs to the Diet under Article 41, the Cabinet's right to initiate bills is not recognized unless expressly provided for. The former is the majority view, and is recognized in Article 5 of the Cabinet Law, and is also in line with customary practice.

The term "member's bill" is used to distinguish it from government-sponsored legislation. In reality, the majority of important national bills are submitted by the government. There are two types of member's bill: when a Diet committee has the right to submit a bill with its chairman as the submitter (Article 50-2 of the Diet Law), and when a bill is proposed by a statutory number of Diet members, the latter of which is sometimes called "member's bill" in the narrow sense. Member's bills are recognized as important as a form of spontaneous legislation within the Diet, which is the representative body of the people, but they can also have the disadvantage of being proposed by Diet members to protect their electoral districts or special interest groups. For this reason, the Diet Law was amended in 1955 (Showa 30) to require the support of at least 20 members in the House of Representatives and at least 10 in the House of Councillors to propose a member's bill in the narrow sense, and in the case of a bill that involves a budget, at least 50 members in the House of Representatives and at least 20 members in the House of Councillors must support it (Article 56-1 of the Diet Law). This amendment has been criticized on the grounds that the principle of deliberative bodies is to allow members the free right to initiate proposals, and also because it restricts the initiative of minority parties.

In the United States, which has a presidential system, the president does not have the right to submit bills, and all bills are proposed by members of parliament. In the United Kingdom, which has a parliamentary cabinet system, 22.0% of bills are proposed by members of parliament, while in Japan the figure is 14.3%. There are growing expectations for bills proposed by members of parliament to revitalize the legislative activities of members of parliament, political parties, and Parliament. In the 1990s, bills such as the Act to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities (NPO Act), the Organ Transplant Act, and the Act to Punish Child Prostitution were enacted as bills proposed by members of parliament.

In local assemblies, Article 112 of the Local Autonomy Law stipulates "the right of assembly members to submit bills," and a bill can be submitted at the initiative of more than one-eighth of the assembly members. However, looking at figures from the 1990s, the average number of bills submitted per year across all prefectures was low.

[Yamano Kazumi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

議員の発議（発案ともいう）による立法。近代立憲主義においては、権力分立制のもとに議会が立法権を有するのが原則であるが、法律が制定改廃されるためには、法律案の発議、審議、議決の段階を経なければならない。発議権については、
(1)政府（内閣）のみに認められる
(2)議員のみに認められる
(3)政府および議員の両者に認められる
という3種の方式がある。君主権力の強い立憲君主制下にあっては(1)の方式も存在したが、現代議会制では(2)または(3)の方式が採用される。このうち議員にのみ発議権を認める(2)の方式は、厳格な権力分立制をとるアメリカのほか数か国が採用しているにすぎず、一般に議院内閣制を採用する諸国では、政府および議員の両者に発議権を認める。わが国では、大日本帝国憲法（明治憲法）下では明文の規定（38条）によって、法律の発議権が政府および両議院に認められていた。現行憲法（日本国憲法）では、発議権に関し明文の規定を欠き、議員のほかに内閣にも認められるか否かで学説が分かれる。これを認める立場は、憲法第72条により内閣に認められる議案提出権は、法律案を含み、また議院内閣制下にあっては国務大臣が議員を兼任することから、内閣の発議権を肯定し、否定説は、発議は立法の一部であり、第41条によって立法権が国会に属することから、明文の規定のない限り内閣の発議権は認められないとする。前者が多数説であり、内閣法第5条もこれを認め、また慣行もこれに従っている。

　議員立法は、政府提案の立法と区別する意味で用いられる。実際には、国の重要法案の大部分は政府提出の法案である。議員立法には、国会の委員会が委員長をもって提出者とする法案提出権を有する場合（国会法50条の2）と、法定数の議員により発議する場合とがあり、後者を狭義の議員立法とよぶこともある。議員立法については、国民代表機関としての議会内部における自発的立法形式としてその重要性が認識されるが、一方で、議員が、その選挙区や特定利益団体保護のために発議する弊害もある。そのため、狭義の議員立法については、1955年（昭和30）国会法を改正して、その発議に、衆議院においては議員20名以上、参議院においては10名以上の賛成を必要とし、予算を伴う法律案の場合には、衆議院においては50名以上、参議院においては20名以上の賛成を要する（国会法56条1項）とした。この改正は、構成員に自由な発議権を認めることが合議制機関の原則とする立場から、また少数党の発議が制約される点からも批判がある。

　大統領制をとるアメリカでは、大統領に法案提出権がなく、法案のすべてが議員立法である。議院内閣制をとるイギリスでは、議員提出法案が22.0％であり、わが国では14.3％である。議員や政党および議会の立法活動の活性化の面から議員立法に対する期待が高まっている。1990年代では、特定非営利活動促進法（NPO法）、臓器移植法、児童買春処罰法などが、議員立法で制定された。

　地方議会においては、地方自治法112条で「議員の議案提出権」が定められ、議員の8分の1以上の発議で法案の提出が可能であるが、90年代の数字をみると、都道府県全体では、平均年28件と低調である。

［山野一美］