Masaji Chiba

On 17th December 2009,  Professor Masaji Chiba passed away at the age of 90. Masaji Chiba was a great scholar, the doyen of sociology of law in Japan, and a charming and gentle man. He was part of the post-war generation of socio-legal scholars in his country, influenced by the American empirical tradition, while also always emphasising the cultural differences between his country and the west. He was active for many years in the work of our Research Committee organising its 1975 meeting in Hakone. He had close links with the Oñati international Institute for the Sociology of Law and was, with Renato Treves, one of the key-note speakers at its inauguration in 1989. He made the institute a generous gift in order to establish a Fund to support academic studies of non-western law, including indigenous law by non western and western young scholars. He will continue to be remembered by successive generations of scholars and students from all over the world.

(This short biography has also been published on the website of IISL.)


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This page last updated 15 January 2010