Lawsuit - Sosho

Japanese: 訴訟 - そしょう
Lawsuit - Sosho

Litigation is generally the process by which conflicting parties with conflicting interests are heard and their claims heard as parties to a lawsuit in order to legally resolve and adjust disputes and conflicts of interest that arise in social life through state power. Law essentially contains an element of coercion, and litigation is a system that uses this coercion as a normative legal force to ensure the effectiveness of the law. Litigation is an indispensable system for us to live a legal life, and in modern countries governed by the rule of law, it is administered and operated by the state due to the state's monopoly on judicial power. However, even in ancient societies before the establishment of states, there was something like a court of elders as a form of collective control. This is said to be the beginning of the litigation system.

In any case, the litigation system was developed along with the development of the state apparatus, and its content was enriched to arrive at the organizational structure we have today. Litigation in modern law-governed states is generally carried out by determining essential facts and then applying the law to them. The content and form of litigation have changed over time. However, litigation always concludes with a trial. For a lawsuit to take place, there must first be a case that must be resolved by trial. Then, there is a conflict between the judge and the person being tried, and the judge, backed by his authority, gives a legal judgment on the case. That is a trial, and the process leading up to that trial is litigation.

In other words, a lawsuit takes the form of a procedure that progresses to a trial through a series of step-by-step litigation actions by the decision-making body and both parties involved. Because the procedure is regulated by law, it is a legal procedure, and procedural law is primarily a legal code for that purpose.

Currently, all litigation, not only civil litigation but also criminal litigation and administrative litigation, formally adopts a two-party structure in which the plaintiff and the defendant are in conflict. However, the two-party litigation system, which dates back to Roman law, is only carried out in its original form in civil litigation and criminal litigation based on the principle of private prosecution. In Japan and Germany, criminal litigation based on the principle of state prosecution is based on the principle of inquisitorial proceedings, and administrative litigation is based on the principle of supervisory proceedings. The two-party litigation structure can be said to be, so to speak, borrowed clothing.

Civil litigation has developed as a system in which the primary objective is to protect the private law rights of the parties involved, and the subject matter lies with the parties involved, while criminal litigation is a system in which the state is the subject, with the objective of imposing penalties on crimes in order to maintain law and order. Administrative litigation is a relatively new system that arose and developed under the modern rule of law state structure, and while it is the same as civil litigation in that it protects the rights of the parties involved, the subject of the protection is public law rights, and the purpose and nature of the system are different from that of original civil litigation.

[Takeyoshi Uchida]

[Reference items] | Administrative litigation | Criminal litigation | Trial | Civil litigation

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

社会生活上、発生した紛争や利害の対立を、国家権力によって法律的に解決調整するために、対立する利害関係人を訴訟当事者として、その主張を聞き、審理裁判する手続を一般的に訴訟という。法は本質的に強制の契機を含んでいるが、この強制を法規範的な力として、法の実効性を担保する制度が訴訟である。訴訟は、われわれが法律生活を営むについて欠くことのできない制度であり、現代の法治国家においては、司法権の国家独占によって、国家がそれを司宰・営為している。しかし国家成立以前の古代社会にも、団体的統制の一型態として長老裁判のようなものがあった。これは訴訟制度の萌芽(ほうが)とみるべきものといわれている。

 いずれにしろ訴訟制度は、国家機構の発達に伴って整備され、その内容を充実して、現在のような組織体系をもつに至ったものである。近代法治国家における訴訟は一般に要件事実を認定し、それに法律を適用して行われている。訴訟の内容と形式は、時代によって変遷している。しかし訴訟を締めくくるものはつねに裁判である。訴訟となるには、まず裁判により解決せられるべき事件がある。そして裁判する者と裁判される者とが対立し、裁判する者が権威を背景として、その事件に対する法的判断を与えるのである。それが裁判であって、その裁判に至るまでの過程が訴訟である。

 つまり、訴訟は、それに関与する判断機関と両当事者の段階的な訴訟行為の連続によって、裁判に至るまで進行する手続の形式をとっている。その手続が法によって規律されているから法律的手続であり、訴訟法は、主としてそのための法規である。

 現在、すべての訴訟は、民事訴訟ばかりでなく刑事訴訟も行政訴訟も、形式的には原告と被告との対立する二当事者主義の構造をとっている。しかしローマ法にさかのぼる二当事者主義訴訟が本来の姿で行われているのは、民事訴訟と私人訴追主義による刑事訴訟とに限られ、日本やドイツにおけるような国家訴追主義による刑事訴訟には糾問主義が、また行政訴訟には監督主義がその背景となっていて、二当事者主義の訴訟構造は、いわば借り衣装であるということができるであろう。

 なお、民事訴訟は当事者の私法上の権利保護を第一義的目的として、その主体性を当事者に置く制度として発達し、刑事訴訟は法秩序維持のため犯罪に対し刑罰を科することを目的として、国家に主体性のある制度となっている。行政訴訟は近代法治国家機構のもとに発生・発達した比較的新しい制度であって、当事者の権利保護という点では民事訴訟と同じであるが、その保護の対象は公法上の権利関係であって、本来の民事訴訟とは、その制度の目的や性格は異なっている。

[内田武吉]

[参照項目] | 行政訴訟 | 刑事訴訟 | 裁判 | 民事訴訟

出典 小学館 日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について 情報 | 凡例

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