Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/73

guaranteed. Every Japanese subject is now free to fix his residence permanently or temporarily, to hire dwelling-places, or to engage in business at any place within the boundaries of the empire. That it is provided in the Constitution that this liberty can be restricted by law alone, and that it shall be put beyond the reach of administrative measures, shows how highly the said liberty is estimated.

23. Personal liberty is guaranteed. Arrest, confinement, and trial can be carried out only under cases mentioned in the law, and according to the rules mentioned therein; and no ill conduct whatever can be punished but in accordance with the express provisions of law…. Any police or prison official, arresting or imprisoning anyone, or treating him harshly, otherwise than in accordance with the law, is liable to heavier punishment for so doing than would be a private individual (Criminal Code, Articles 278, 279, and 280. As to the process of trial, no case shall be brought before a police official, but before some judicial authority; defence shall also be permitted, and trial shall be conducted openly. Any judicial or police authority that resorts to violence in order to extort confession of crime from an accused shall be liable to specially severe punishment (Criminal Code, Article 282). Punishments that are not in accordance with the express provisions of the law shall have no effect (Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 410; Criminal Code, Article 2). Such is the extreme thoroughness of care taken for the protection of subjects. The present article insures against the revival of obsolete usages, and places personal liberty on a safe and stable basis.

24. There is also a necessary provision for the protection of individual rights. The Judges established by law shall deal impartially between litigating parties, free from the restraints of power; and every subject shall be able to contend in a court of law with the high and mighty, and, giving his version of the case, defend against prosecuting officials. The Constitution, therefore, does not suffer encroachment upon the judicial power nor denial of the right of individuals, by the establishment of any extraordinary tribunal or commission, other than by the competent court fixed by law.

25. The inviolable nature of dwellings is guaranteed. A house is a place in which subjects reside in security, and not only are private persons forbidden to enter the abodes of other people, without the consent of its occupants, but also any police, judicial, or revenue official, who, in connection with either a civil or a criminal case or with an administrative measure, shall enter the house of a private individual, or make a search therein, otherwise than in cases specified by