Night Talks at the Law Window

A judge searches for his watch. A scholar escapes in a book chest. Prisoners receive an extraordinary promise during Edo’s great fire. In these hundred talks, the history of law becomes a gallery of human surprises.

Hozumi Nobushige ranges from ancient Rome and Greece to European jurists and Japanese institutions, bringing humor and curiosity to questions of punishment, property, obligation, and justice.

As one of the Japanese Civil Code’s principal drafters, he also offers firsthand recollections of new legal terminology, fierce arguments over codification, and the work of building a modern legal system.