法科大学院発足後の日本における企業法教育

In April, 2004, the law school program was newly introduced in Japan. It started to offer the education programs for those who want to be legal professionals. At graduation, law schools grants their students JD degree that is required to take Japanese bar examination, which was entirely revised and brought into effect from 2006. These major reforms of training systems for legal profession were intended to increase the numbers of lawyers to meet potential nationwide demand for legal services. On the other hand, universities that have additionally created their own law schools chose to retain the traditional legal education programs such as undergraduate courses and graduate schools of law. The entire costs of keeping these courses gradually distressed the management and research activities of many universities' law faculty. In this article, the author, teaching commercial law classes in a Japanese law school, illustrates the past and current situation of Japanese higher academic institutions of research and education for jurisprudence. And then, the author tries to evaluate the significance of introducing law school system in Japan. The author also observes (1) the widespread tendency among the Japanese law school students to underestimate the classes not concerned with bar exam, and (2) a large scale of decrease in numbers of undergraduate students who wish to choose a career to engage in academic studies in jurisprudence.