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takings, and to confer conspicuous titular distinctions, other marks of honour, and special favours. And no subject is allowed to usurp and trifle with this prerogative of the Emperor.
16. The State gives equal and impartial protection to the rights of the subjects, in accordance with the principles of justice and reason, by establishing courts of law and by appointing officers of justice. But the law is not comprehensive or precise enough to meet the various and complicated requirements of human life; and when, as it frequently happens, there are palliating circumstances in the case of an offence against the law, it is to be apprehended that no ordinary process of the legislature or of the judicature will be adequate to supply the deficiency of the law. Consequently, it is intended that the right of pardon may be exercised by the special beneficent power of the Emperor, to give relief where there is no hope of it to be looked for from the law, so that there shall not be one subject ever suffering under an undeserved punishment.
‘Amnesty’ is to be granted, in a special case, as an exceptional favour, and is intended for the pardoning of a certain class of offences. ‘Pardon’ is granted to an individual offender to release him from the penalty he has incurred. ‘Commutation’ is the lessening of the severity of the penalties already pronounced in the sentence. ‘Rehabilitation’ is the restoration of public rights that have been forfeited.
In the thirteen articles from Article 4 to Article 16 the sovereign powers of the Head of the State are enumerated. These sovereign powers are operative in every direction, unless restricted by the express provisions of the Constitution, just as the light of the sun shines everywhere, unless it is shut out by a screen. So these sovereign powers do not depend for their existence upon the enumeration of them in successive clauses. In the Constitution is given a general outline of the sovereign powers; and as to the particulars touching them, only the essential points are stated, in order to give a general idea of what they are. The right of coining money, for example, and that of fixing weights and measures, are not enumerated; still, the very absence of any mention of them shows that they are included in the sovereign power of the Emperor.
17. A Regent shall exercise the sovereign powers of the Emperor. Except as to title, he is in every respect like the Emperor, and carries on the government in the name of the Emperor. The only restriction upon his power is that mentioned in Article 75 of the present Constitution. ‘In the name of the Emperor’ means in the place of the Emperor; that is, a Regent issues his orders in the place of the Emperor.
The institution of a Regent is fixed by the Imperial House Law; but as the exercise of the sovereign powers by a Regent