Book Reviews Asia : J. Mark Ramseyer and Minoru Nakazato (Eds.), Japanese Law: An Economic Approach. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. January 1999. Pp. xxi, 295. $45. ISBN: 0-226-70384-3
Abstract
Book Reviews AsiaJ. Mark Ramseyer and Minoru Nakazato (Eds.), Japanese Law: An Economic Approach. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. January 1999. Pp. xxi, 295. $45. ISBN: 0-226-70384-3 SAGE Publications, Inc.1999DOI: 10.1177/002190969903400413 Daniel C. Turack Capital Law School Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A. The authors' announced objective is to have you read the book, cover through cover, and to enjoy the read. Not many books on law are read for enjoyment. In that sense the authors' purpose is unusual. Most books on comparative law are fat (think of those monumental contributions by Barton, Gibbs, Jr., Li and Merryman, Law in Radically Different Cultures ( 1983) or Glendon, Gordon and Osakwe, Comparative Legal Ti-aditions (1994). The authors' intent was to write an anorexic book, not an anemic one, while comparing the interplay between law and human behavior in Japan and the United States. They have admirably accomplished that goal in an almost entertaining way, using the theme of an economic model. They use economics "because we think classic Chicago-school economic intuition (taken alone and simply, without much elaboration) goes far toward explaining much (not all) law-related behavior in Japan" (p. xiii). This economic model renders the authors the opportunity to