Author
Prof Mariko Igimi
Organisation/Institution
Kyushu University, Faculty of Law
Country
JAPAN
Panel
Private Law
Title
A step forward to the Antiquity? Actio Pauliana in the Amended Civil Code of Japan
Abstract
Actio Pauliana is a principle known in Indonesian bankruptcy law deriving from Roman law which is also recepted in Japanese law under the concept of "Obligee's Right to Demand Rescission of Fraudulent Act". Through the amendment of the Japanese Civil Code in 2020, three provisions for the obligee's right to demand rescission of fraudulent act became a whole subsection with 14 articles, integrating established court decisions since its codification in 1898. The Civil Code now provides much more detailed regulation on actio Pauliana, similar to what the Romans argued about 1700 to 2000 years ago. Nevertheless, some rulings in the Antiquity seem to be more simple, precise and practical than our new version. The paper will compare them by focusing on the amended articles §424 ff. and inter alia D.42,8,6 from the Digest. Roman law might be, in my opinion, the key knowledge for the regional integration, not only because many jurisdictions in the region recepted Roman law from ---directly or indirectly--- European Civil Law countries, but also because Roman law is basically the compilation of "court decisions", known as the characteristic of Common Law. In the classical period (27 BCE ~ mid 3rd Century CE), the prominent jurisconsults were concurrently practitioners, who advised magistrates and emperors for the actual cases, whose books were epitomized and "codified" much later in 6th Century by Justinian as the Digesta (also known as Pandectae), one of the four components of the Corpus Iuris Civilis. Hence, the paper intends to provoke a discussion / an interaction from the perspective of various jurisdictions by introducing Roman law.
Biography
Born and raised in Fukuoka, Japan, Prof. Dr. Mariko Igimi visited local public schools obtaining LL.B. (1990), LL.M. (1992), and LL.D. (1995) from Kyushu University, during which she studied at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich under Prof. D. Nörr (1991-1993), Università di Roma „La Sapienza“ under Prof. G. Crifó (1993-1994), and at Oxford University under Prof. P. Birks (1995-1996). She then taught Civil Law at the Faculty of Law and Letters, Ehime University from 1996 to 2002 and teaches Roman law at the Faculty of Law, Kyushu University since April 2002, where she teaches "Introduction to Japanese Law from a historical perspective" to international students since 2003 as well. Throughout her academic carrier, she has been specializing in Roman law, especially in the classical Roman law of contract. Recently, however, she is particularly interested in the law in the context of the everyday life of the Roman commoners. She was a AvHumboldt Stiftung scholar at University of Saarland in 2006-2007 and more recently, she was a visiting researcher/professor at University of Naples Federico II in 2024-2025. She is one of the most internationally active scholars in the field of Roman law in Japan and is one of the first female full professors at her affiliation.
