著者

山崎 真秀

出版者

The Japanese Association of Sociology of Law

雑誌

法社会学 (ISSN:04376161)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.1966, no.18, pp.51-85,226, 1966-04-20 (Released:2009-04-03)

参考文献数

57

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After the war, Japanese universities were reorganized into an institution not only for prosecuting academic researches as before but also for giving the people higher education in order to bring up “citizens”, and the number of universities has remarkably increased as compared with prewar days. In particular, recent economic development of our country has brought the growing attention of the people to university and the growing number of high school graduates who go on to universities. This tendency is also under the influence of the constitutional guarantee of the right to receive education. Likewise, the government has adopted, as one of its main policies, the policy of promoting the scientific technique and cultivating the people's ability, so that the problems of university system and education have often aroused public attention and discussion. Under such social condition, a matter which is always and hotly discussed is “university autonomy”.“University autonomy” in Japan had developed as a “custom” at the prewar Imperial Universities, the basic idea of which gave the faculty meeting an autonomy as to its human affairs, so as to maintain freedom of research. But after the Taisho era, when reformative thoughts such as socialism developed, the government authority hand in hand with the militarists exerted pressure upon the thoughts and opinions of progressive scholars, and by so doing frequently violated “university autonomy” as well as “academic freedom”.Through such experience before the war, we acquired after the war the constitutional guarantee of “academic freedom” and legal guarantee for the university's control over the human affairs of its teaching staff. However, “university autonomy” remains to be and is prevailingly considered to be a “custom” which has been practiced from the prewar days.Now, what is the reason why many troubles have happened in succession over this “university autonomy”, in spite of the constitutional guarantee of “academic freedom” and partial legal guarantee of “university autonomy”? It is worthy of discussion. Although many reasons may be pointed out, the author thinks the main reason may be found in the fact that the “university autonomy” has seldom become an object of scientific study because it has been a “custom” in the exact meaning, and that we have lacked in historical studying about the “Imperial Universities” which established the “custom”.On this hypothesis, the author discussed the development of the thought and custom of “university autonomy” in Japan before the war and the historical function of the Imperial Universities as the source of such thought and custom. The summary of the article is as follows.Section I. To make out the meaning and the background of the subject, the author explains the transition from the constitution and the underlying principle of it under the prewar Meiji Constitution to those under the postwar Constitution of Japan, and the difference of the constitutional guarantee and treatment of “academic freedom” and “university autonomy” under those two Constitutions.Section II. The birth of the University of Tokyo as the first modern university in Japan; its reorganization into the “Imperial University” by the first Education Minister, Arinori Mori, in 1886 when the Ordinance of Imperial University and other school ordinances were framed; the process in which this “Tokyo Imperial University” came to be established as a model to subsequent Japanese universities and university institution; these matters are sketched.