Six Codes (六法) refers to the six main

legal code A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...

s that make up the main body of law in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, and the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

(

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

). Sometimes, the term is also used to describe the six major areas of law. Furthermore, it may refer to all or part of a collection of

statute A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by ...

s. The word ''roppō'' is a slightly adapted form of the word used in Japanese to describe the Napoleonic Code (ナポレオン五法典 Napoleon go-hōten) when it was brought over during the early

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

.Masaji Chiba “Japan” edited by Poh-Ling Tan, “Asian Legal Systems” Butterworths, London, 1997. Although, French Emperor Napoleon enacted five major codes, which were, in Japanese, altogether metonymically referred to as "the Napoleonic Code" (the official name of the Civil Code, the first and most prominent one), the Japanese added to this their own constitution to form six codes in all, and thus it came to be called the ''roppō'' or "six codes." Legislation in Japan tends to be terse. The statutory volume ''Roppō Zensho'' (literally: Book of Six Codes), similar in size to a large dictionary, contains all six codes as well as many other statutes enacted by the Diet. The Six Codes were introduced to China in 1905 after the reform and modernization of the Chinese legal system led by

Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese noblewoman, concubine and later regent who effectively controlled ...

. Such reform was based on the similar laws adopted in Germany, France, and Japan. After the establishment of Nationalist Government, the ''Complete Book of Six Codes'' was passed on October 3 1928. The

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

abolished the practices of ''Six Codes'' on the land of Communist control in February 1949. As a result of Japanese colonial rule and the

Retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan The retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan (), also known as the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan or the Great Retreat () in Taiwan, refers to the exodus of the remnants of the internationally recognized Kuomintang-ruled ...

, the legal system in Taiwan is strongly influenced by Japan and China.王泰升, 概述台灣法的歷史,思想與法學 n Overview of Taiwan’s Legal History, Thought, and Study 290 台灣法學雜誌 13 (2016). As a result, the terms Six Codes and Book of Six Codes are also widely used in Taiwan.

External links

Ministry of Justice, ROC (Taiwan)

The Laws and Regulations Database of the ROC (Taiwan)

The Complete Six Codes of Japan ＲＯＮの六法全書 onLINE (in Japanese)

References

{{reflist Civil law legal terminology Japanese legislation Law of South Korea Law of Taiwan

See also

External links

References