Article 252Capacity to Participate in Proceedings

①In the mediation cases set forth in the following items (in items (i) and (ii), excluding cases which seek the provision of property benefits), the persons specified respectively in these items may participate in proceedings themselves, not through their legal representative, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 31 of the Code of Civil Procedure as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 17, paragraph (1). The same applies when the person is a person under curatorship or a person under assistance (limited to a person under assistance who is required to obtain consent from the assistant for performing procedural acts) and the person has not obtained consent from the curator or supervisor of the curator or the assistant or supervisor of the assistant:

②Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 18, in the mediation cases set forth in items (i), (iii), and (iv) of the preceding paragraph (as for the mediation case set forth in item (i) of the paragraph, excluding a case to seek the provision of a property benefit), a person who exercises parental authority or a guardian may not make an agreement under Article 268, paragraph (1), accept the proposed terms of a mediation prescribed in Article 270, paragraph (1), or file a joint notification under Article 286, paragraph (8), on behalf of the persons specified respectively in these items. The same applies to a guardian of a husband and wife in a mediation case regarding a divorce, and to a guardian of an adoptive parent, a person who exercises parental authority over an adopted child (limited to a child of 15 years of age or older; hereinafter the same applies in this paragraph), and a guardian of an adopted child in a mediation case regarding the dissolution of an adoptive relationship.