Faculty of Law

Curriculum
The Faculty of Law, comprising the Department of Law and the Department of Political Science, provides excellent opportunities to study law and politics in a wide range of areas.
The first-year of study focuses on acquiring basic knowledge for further studies. It also offers a preparation period for students to decide their area of study. From the second year, students start their specialized area, either the law as comprehensive rules of social life, or knowledge of politics and government as a system governing society on the Individual, Civil, National, and Global Level.
"Scientia potential est," Knowledge is Power.
Bearing in mind the philosophy of Hokkai-Gakuen University, the Faculty of Law has been nurturing individual students towards achievement either in legal issues or politics. The curriculum is designed to enable students to receive a well-balanced education, which will help them reconcile the diversity between social values and opinions. As a result of their academic accomplishments, our graduates have been widely accepted in society.
What kind of human-power should be cultivated depends on the needs of the society of the moment. The criteria will be flexible and ever changing. Accommodating this social change, the Faculty of Law aims to educate the student to be a generalist who has acquired a good understanding of the law and practice and theory of political studies, disciplining to develop strong analytical & critical thinking with problem-solving skills. The Faculty of Law has been committed for this philosophy ever since it was established in 1964, and it will continue in the future.

The Department of Law

Curriculum
The Department of Law provides students with the opportunities to study what ideal each law serves and how law can be interpreted and applied appropriately.
Law is the complex of rules that predicts and discourages a number of various social conflicts or resolves them in case of need. The system of law composed of several codes, such as the civil code, the commercial code, the criminal code and so on, assumes various cases. Each provision of law is, therefore, set up quite abstractly. So, in each concrete case students need to search for applied provisions of law and interpret them. It is "the methods of law interpretation" that is especially important to jurisprudence.
In reading any provision of law students need to know its history of enactment and the ideal of each law. In addition, they should have knowledge of the relevant disciplines including politics, economics, psychology, sociology and medicine because the system of law is a part of the entire social system. And also students need to know foreign legislation in some degree because western legislation has made great influence on Japanese legislation. Not until that they will reach this point, will students be able to get the skills to interpret any paragraph of law appropriately, or to put it shortly "legal thinking with the heart".
Students, you have a large selection at the Department of Law. The more sincerely you study jurisprudence, the more fun you will have. Why don't you join us?

Department of Political Science

Curriculum
Practice and Theory of Political Studies on Individual, Civil, National, and Global Level
Because we cannot live without any political or/and public services in our modern society, we seldom think about societies in which people actually do live without those services. Here at HGU, though, we can think about such questions. We can study society from every angle. We, for instance, can look at how to assign ideal candidates to public office based on the idea of finding the right match between types of public services and specific social needs. Eventually, our students learn to find the right governmental, nonprofit, or for-profit positions to match their own talents and expertise.