Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/87

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN
55

tribunals shall be established by law. No ordinance can establish legal exceptional cases. The Constitution does not suffer the establishment of exceptional courts placed beyond the control of law, encroaching upon the Judicature through the influence of the administrative authority, and wresting from the people the proper courts where justice can be obtained.

61. By the ‘Court of Administrative Litigation’ is to be understood a tribunal where cases instituted against administrative measures are adjudicated. The law provides certain limits upon rights of subjects in order to insure the safety of the same. And no party of the body politic can claim any exemption from the duty of observing these legal limits. The proper function of judicial courts is to adjudicate in civil cases, and they have no power to annul measures ordered to be carried out by administrative authorities, who have been charged with their duties by the Constitution and the law. For the independence of the administration of the Judicature is just as necessary as that of the Judicature itself. Administrative authorities carry out measures by virtue of their official functions, and for these measures they lie under constitutional responsibility, and it follows that they ought to possess power to remove obstacles in the path of these measures and to decide upon suits springing from the carrying out of them. For should the administrative be denied this power, its executive efficacy would be entirely paralyzed, and it would no longer be able to discharge the responsibilities put upon it by the Constitution. This is the first reason why it is necessary to establish a Court of Administrative Litigation in addition to judicial courts. As the object of an administrative measure is to maintain public interests, it will become necessary under certain circumstances to sacrifice the individuals for the sake of public benefit. But the question of administrative expediency is just what judicial authorities are ordinarily apt to be not conversant with. It would therefore be rather dangerous to confide to them the power of deciding such questions. Administrative cases ought, accordingly, to be left to the decision of men well versed in administrative affairs. This is the second and final reason why the establishment of a Court of Administrative Litigation is necessary, in addition to judicial courts. But its organization, like that of the latter, must be established by law. By the expression ‘illegal measures of the administrative authorities’ it must be understood that no suit can be brought against those measures that have been carried out in conformity with law or with the functionary power of the office in question. The expression ‘rights alleged to have been infringed’ points to the evident conclusion that mere damage to one’s interests,