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The book outlines a dramatic history of the failed liberalization of Japanese private law during the Meiji era. Once Japan overthrew the shogunate and fully opened up to contact with the world, modernization of the backward country and its fragmented customary legal system became a crucial objective of the new ruling elites. The initiated codification of law included the drafting of the first Civil Code, designed to revolutionize the traditional societal ties in Japan. The legal project, seemingly straightforward, turned out to be notoriously difficult and dragged on for three decades. More importantly, it led to a national controversy, dividing the Japanese jurisprudence into two opposing factions, which supported drastically different visions of the Civil Code and thus, the country's future.

Almost 10 years ago, the Ordonnance of 10 February 2016 reforming the French Civil Code (CC) removed the cause from the conditions for validity of the obligation. Thus, it broke with the tradition of the Code Napoléon , and a large number of civil codifications followed. Since 2016, French scholars have argued that, notwithstanding its conceptual implications, the disappearance of the formula of the cause has resulted in semantic rather than substantial changes. Whereas, in one opinion, the cause is still found underlying ‘contenu litice et certain’ (Article 1128), its various forms and functions today appear in several CC provisions.

The Japanese Civil Code (JCC) was enacted in 1896. Since then, the Law of Obligations of the JCC had not undergone any major amendments for a long time. It was in 2017 that a significant revision was undertaken. And this revision also included the provisions regarding set-off. This paper explains the various set-off requirements stipulated by Japanese current law. In Japan, the conditions under which the statutory requirements for set-off are satisfied are described as “eligibility for set-off” (Sousai-Tekijou), and the legal status of the parties in the set-off is called the right to set-off. Even if this eligibility for set-off arises, the parties may not exercise the right to set-off if there are circumstances that restrict the set-off. In addition, the Japanese Bankruptcy Act (JBA) modifies the requirements provided by the JCC to accommodate bankruptcy proceedings. In this paper, we will review in order the affirmative requirements for creating eligibility for set-off, the negative requirements for restricting the exercise of the right to set-off, and the requirements for set-off in bankruptcy proceedings. Please note that under Japanese law, when A intends to extinguish B’s claim β against him by set-off against his claim α, A’s claim α is referred to as an active claim (Jido-Saiken), and B’s cross-claim β as a passive claim (Judo-Saiken). This paper will also be described based on this terminology 1 .

In 1994, Albania codified the current civil code, harmonizing the national legislation with the democratic values of the Western European Countries. This paper fills the gap in the national and international scientific literature since there is no scientific contribution that examines the Albanian law of succession showing the similarities and differences between the Albanian and the Italian civil codes. This is fundamental because according to Article 33 Albanian Private International Law (Albanian Law no. 10 428 of June 2011), which governs cross-border succession law, in the case of immovable goods, the rule of has been codified. Thus, in the case of immovable goods, the Albanian succession law will be applied to them. In the conclusion, this research demonstrates that the Albanian Law of Succession of 1994 is different in many ways from the rules established in the Italian Civil Code of 1942.

This article reveals the different formative layers at work in a mixed system of law, such as that of private law in the United Arab Emirates ( , by focusing on the lack of coherence between competing ‘architectural principles’. This experience of friction is regularly encountered by a skilled interpreter of the law, in the course of his/her activity of ensuring predictable and appropriate legal responses to practical problems. Specifically, this piece tracks the interpretive difficulties surfacing in cases of supervening impossibility of performance for loss or damage to a necessary item, when that loss or damage originates in a causal factor outside of the defendant’s sphere of control (‘extraneous cause’). In such cases, the contract is terminated and the legal question shifts to one of awarding compensation for the loss or damage suffered by the item. In the face of this question, two competing criteria for assigning liability come into play. On the one hand, the civil law distinction between unilateral and bilateral contracts, meaning contracts giving rise to obligations upon only one or both parties to the contract. On the other hand, the categories of trust-based, liability-based and mixed possession in Islamic law. Here, liability is assigned based on the material circumstances that define the manner of possession, as opposed to looking at the abstract scheme of performance and (if available) counter-performance. The categories drawn from Islamic law have the potential to unify a number of apparently scattered provisions in the Civil Code: for this reason, the article puts forth a recommendation to follow the approach of the Iraqi Civil Code and acknowledge those categories as an explicit organising principle for assigning liability in the presence of an extraneous cause. The paper makes an additional recommendation to treat the classification of possession (as trust-based or liability-based) as a matter of public policy, unavailable for the parties’ consensual deviation.

Conditionals have always been hot topics in linguistics. Biber (1995) analyzes the logical cohesion of 22 Korean registers, Yao (2017) analyzes the differences in the use of 22 conditional markers in Chinese from 8 registers, and they find that legal texts use the least connectives. However, their researches only focus on the comparison of registers from the same language, and do not carry out the comparison of the same register from different languages. From a cross-linguistic perspective, taking Civil Code of the People's Republic of China (‘CC’) and its English version (‘ECC’) as an example, this paper makes study of the conditional markers of legal texts, and finds that: First, the preconditions in CC are always expressed by de constructions, and the Chinese character de is the conditional marker. Second, the postconditions in CC are always expressed by danshu, and the words danshi (but/however) are the conditional markers. Third, the conditions in ECC are expressed by conditional clauses (i.e. initiated by where/if), relative clauses (initiated by who, that, whose, etc.) and other phrases etc., and they function as the conditional markers thereof. Fourth, the provisos in ECC are always introduced by unless, provided that, except, etc., which are the conditional markers thereof. Fifth, as for the use of conditional markers in legislative texts, Chinese is more stylized and rigid compared to those of English, which may have been influenced by the Plain English Movement.

“Development of family civilization” has joined legislative language system from policy language and ethical language, and has become the basic value orientation of the Marriage and Family Section of Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as “the Civil Code”). We need to specify significance and jurisprudence of family civilization, and make family civilization harmonious with the basic principles (basic value orientations) of Marriage and Family Section and Inheritance Section. The significance of family civilization in the new era should be taken to include equality, respect, loyalty and unity, as is specified through the legal rules of marriage and family. Development of family civilization does not challenge freedom, but overcomes the defects of individualism in the identity community so as to fully realize the liberal and all-round development of each family member. By integrating family civilization with the basic value orientation of its Marriage and Family Section, the Civil Code has demonstrated a basic position of valuing “family” and of “coordinating the relationship between individual and family.” Moreover, it has revealed the basic attitude of Chinese people towards marital relationship and even towards marriage and family: Marriage and family provide a warm harbor of ethical love with legal significance, a weal-and-woe-sharing community of affection and property wherein family members, husband and wife in particular, focus on overall coordination. It is a closeknit group of equality, harmony, solidarity, like-mindedness, mutual respect and care for the elderly and for the young, and of trust-worthy team.

In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), robots have profoundly impacted our life and work, and have challenged our civil legal system. In the course of AI development, robots need to be designed to protect our personal privacy, data privacy, intellectual property rights, and tort liability identification and determination. In addition, China needs an updated Civil Code in line with the growth of AI. All measures should aim to address AI challenges and also to provide the needed institutional space for the development of AI and other emerging technologies.

Twenty-four new or revised systems or rules have been incorporated in the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China for the purpose of strengthening the State's protection of marriage and family, promoting development of family civilization, and respecting the autonomy of the parties to marriage and family. Furthermore, they are designed for advancing equal marriage and family status, implementing the principle for the best interests of children, and protecting the rights and interests of the weak in marriage and family. In the Marriage and Family Section of the Civil Code, the Chapter 1 “General” has got the new principle of the State protecting marriage and family, new advisory rule for promoting development of marriage and family civilization, and new principle for protecting the best interest of adoptees. Moreover, it has defined the types of relatives, close relatives and family members. In the Chapter 2 “Marriage,” the lawful circumstances for prohibiting marriage and for invalidating marriage are reduced, the scheme of revoking a marriage is revised and supplemented; the obligation of telling the truth about major diseases, and the right for the innocent party to claim damages for an invalid or revoked marriage, are added. In the Chapter 3 “Family Relations,” the rules of husband and wife’s family agency right and its restriction, the rules of marital common debt determination, the rules of marital common property split, and the rule of litigation for the confirmation and denial of parent-child relationship, are added; in the Chapter 4 “Divorce,” the pre-divorce cooling off period and the time for dissolution of marriage relationship are added, the legal circumstances for divorce in litigation, the rules for dealing with child support during divorce, and the principle of splitting the common property of divorced couples are supplemented, the applicable conditions of divorce financial compensation and divorce financial assistance are modified, and the legal circumstances for divorce damage compensation is increased; in the Chapter 5 “Adoption,” the age of adoptees and the number of adopted children are relaxed, the conditions of adopters are revised, and the adoption evaluation rules are added.

ABSTRACT The main purpose of this article is to present the handwritten notes of José Gabriel Ocampo in a copy of the Chilean Civil Code Project of 1853 that belonged to him, and which is currently part of the so-called Ocampo Archive in the library of the Chilean Bar Association (Santiago). KEY WORDS Ttile XXVIII of the Civil Code - José Gabriel Ocampo - Chilean Civil Code Project of 1853. La ausencia de claridad de las ideas que inspiraron esta pieza fundamental en la arquitectura de nuestro sistema societario dificulta una adecuada comprensión del actual derecho de sociedades, de cuyo origen primigenio parece no existir rastro. El enfoque en los trabajos preparatorios del Código de Comercio de Ocampo tuvo su hito más significativo, hasta la fecha, en la edición a cargo de Enrique Brahm del libro José Gabriel Ocampo y la codificación comercial chilena, en dos tomos, publicados respectivamente en los años 2000 y 2009, donde se transcriben los manuscritos del jurista argentino para la facción del Código de Comercio, con una nota introductoria y de fuentes16.