Family, contracts and courts

The Civil Code sets out private rights (私権) and how they work: persons and their capacity, juridical acts (法律行為) such as contracts, real rights (物権) in things and security over them, claims (債権) arising from contracts and other sources, unjust enrichment and torts, and family relations and succession.

The procedure of a civil suit, from which court hears it and how it is filed, served, argued and proved, to judgment, appeal and retrial, with separate routes for small claims, bills and checks, and demands for payment.

Court mediation (調停) of civil disputes: the parties, helped by a judge and civil mediation commissioners, look for a settlement by mutual concession that is reasonable and fits the facts of their case.

How a court and its court enforcement officers (執行官) make a debtor pay or do what a judgment or other enforceable instrument requires, sell property to enforce a mortgage or other security interest or where another Act calls for an auction, and find out what property a debtor has.

How a court winds up a debtor who cannot pay its debts — the property of a person, a corporation or other body, or a deceased person's estate or a trust — by sharing it fairly among creditors, and how an individual can then be freed from the debts left over to make a fresh start.

Which country's law governs a matter that crosses borders — a contract, a tort (不法行為, a wrongful act that harms someone), a marriage, a child, an inheritance — together with when an Act takes effect and when a custom counts as law.