The CISLP aims to conduct interdisciplinary and international collaborative research on cutting-edge issues on law and policy, propose new ideas on law and policy that can lead international discussions, and cultivate innovative fields and yield creative academic leadership. Thus, it is one of the important pillars of the CISLP to promote international joint research in collaboration with foreign research institutions and train internationally competitive young researchers.

Collaboration with Foreign Research Institutions

Starting with an academic exchange agreement with the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (Germany) in 2008, Kyoto University Graduate School of Law has concluded academic exchange agreements with 12 departments in legal and political science of a foreign university and international organizations to lay foundations for our international collaborative research. Kyoto University Graduate School of Law has actively been engaged, in particular, in joint research projects with the world-renowned Max Planck Institute involving young researchers from different fields and published academic books and papers based on various research fundings. The CISLP continues to closely work with the Max Planck Institute and further conducts collaborative research with, inter alia, the University of Vienna (Austria), University of Zurich (Switzerland), Cardiff University (UK), Australian National University (Australia), New York University (USA), University of Michigan (USA) and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (UK).

Promotion of International Collaborative Research

The CISLP has established three units in conducting international collaborative research on cutting-edge issues on law and policy. They are (a) “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Law”, (b) “Medical Care and Law”, and (c) “Environment and Law”. The envisaged international joint research projects are expected to yield fruitful results in the form of presentations in seminars and symposiums and the publication of academic books and papers.

(a) Artificial Intelligence and Law Unit
The CISLP collaborates with Cardiff University for a joint research project on the interaction between autonomous AI-based machines and human beings from a perspective of engineer and experimental psychology. The CISLP also carries out collaborative research with the Australian National University on law and economics and governance theory. Furthermore, experts from the University of Vienna, the University of Zurich, and New York University will be invited to give advice on developing legal rules and designing an architecture suited for digital society.

(b) Medical Care and Law Unit
In the summer 2020, the CISLP held a symposium on legal responses to the pandemic and Covid-19 infection in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute. Moreover, since the end of 2021, the CISLP has been engaged in a joint research project with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law . Several seminars have been organized and a book publication is in preparation. The CISLP further envisions to reinforce collaborative research activities and launch a joint research project on medical policy and law with experts from the University of Vienna.

(c) Environment and Law Unit
In collaboration with different organizations, such as the International Environmental Technology Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Asia Center for Air Pollution Research , the CISLP strives to tackle various legal issues surrounding cross-border environmental damage and climate change.

International Training of Young Researchers
The CISLP places great emphasis on training young researchers and has provided internationally competitive education programs for graduate students. Notably, Kyoto University Graduate School of Law has been closely working with the University of Vienna Faculty of Law and holding annual joint seminars alternately in Kyoto and Vienna. These seminars have largely contributed to develop international human resources by providing our graduate students with an opportunity to make a presentation in a foreign language and prepare their thesis.

Introduction of the Manager of the Section on International Research on Legal Culture

Yuko Nishitani, Manager for the Promotion of International Collaborative Research (Professor at Kyoto University Graduate School of Law, majored in International Business Law and Private International Law)

After completing her undergraduate and LL.M. programs at Kyoto University Graduate School of Law, Yuko Nishitani obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). After serving as Associate Professor at Tohoku University and Professor at Kyushu University, she was appointed as Professor at Kyoto University Graduate School of Law in 2015. She has done extensive research in Germany (as a DAAD and Humboldt fellow), the United States (as a Fulbright fellow), France, Italy (as a MEXT fellow), and the Netherlands (on behalf of the MOJ) for about 10 years. She has also been Visiting Professor at Duke University (USA), New York University (USA), Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), University of Zurich (Switzerland), University of Lausanne (Switzerland), University of Brescia (Italy), University of Cologne (Germany) (invited), Tel Aviv University (Israel), Hebrew University (Israel) (invited), and the Judges Academy in Taiwan (Taiwan).

She is Vice President of the Hague Academy of International Law since May 2023. She is also a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, and an Academic Member of the Cambridge University Family Law Center and Nordic Centre for Comparative and International Family Law. She has also represented the Japanese government several times at the Hague Conference on Private International Law and participated in numerous international joint research projects. She is a recipient of the Lucia and Rolf Serick Prize of the University of Heidelberg (1998) and the Philipp Franz von Siebold Prize awarded by the Federal President of Germany (2020).

Her major publications and editorships include:

• Mancini und die Parteiautonomie im Internationalen Privatrecht – Eine Untersuchung auf der Grundlage der neu zutage gekommenen kollisionsrechtlichen Vorlesungen Mancinis – (Carl Winter-Verlag, 2000)
• Identité culturelle en droit international privé de la famille (Recueil des cours de l’Académie de droit international de La Haye, Vol. 401 (2019), pp. 127-450)
• Japanese Private International Law (with Kazuaki Nishioka) (Hart Publishing, 2021)
• Japanese and European Private International Law in Comparative Perspective (ed. with Jürgen Basedow and Harald Baum) (Mohr Siebeck, 2008)
• Treatment of Foreign Law – Dynamics towards Convergence? (ed.) (Springer, 2017)
• Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts: Global Perspectives on the Hague Principles (ed. by Daniel Girsberger, Thomas Kadner Graziano, and Jan Neels; acting as one of the regional editors) (Oxford University Press, 2021)
• Theory and Practice of the Hague Convention: For Resolving Cross-Border Child Custody Disputes (ed. with Mikiko Otani) (Horitsu Bunkasha, 2021)

Her current research interests encompass, inter alia, contemporary challenges of private international law and transnational governance, theoretical foundations of the global legal pluralism, individual identity and human rights in private international family law, theory and practice of the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, corporate due diligence in “business and human rights” and climate change, and the international protection of intellectual property and privacy.