Codification in East Asia: Commercial Law

Abstract

Commercial codes of civil law countries have been subject to substantial changes in recent years. In countries such as Germany and Japan, the process called “de-codification” has been in progress. Company law, an original component of a continental code, now often constitutes a separate code. Insurance contract law is another example. In other countries (such as France and Korea), however, commercial codes have been expanding to incorporate newly emerging business activities. Faced with these conflicting developments, commercial law scholars have been called to reconsider the identity of commercial law, and of the commercial code, in modern times.

The general report purports to discuss dynamic changes in commercial law legislations occurring in four East Asian jurisdictions - China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The four jurisdictions all belong to the civil law family and have been, and still are, closely intertwined with each other, culturally as well as historically. Developments in these jurisdictions, however, show a variety of possibilities in systematizing commercial law rules, providing a rich source for comparative law research.