When Even A Liberal Is Happy For Textualism
Today I was amused to come across one of the most tissue-paper defenses I've encountered in all my legal reading. From a Japanese sex-discrimination case, Sasaki v. Iron and Steel Federation 156 Zeimu soshô shiryô 2202 (Tokyo D. Ct., Dec. 12, 1986):
In response, defendant contends (1) that while the labor agreement contains language which seems to indicate discrepancies in the increase rate for the basic wage and the bonus coefficient for males and females, in reality such discrepancies were the result of Defendant's personnel policy under which employees are categorized as either "key employees" or "other employees" and that the words "male" and "female" in the labor agreement simply stand for "key employee" and "other employee" respectively.[1]
You'll be happy to know that the Tokyo District Court threw out that argument, albeit not perhaps with the force that it deserved.
[1]: From the translation by Darrel Holstein in Curtis J. Milhaupt, et. al., Japanese Law in Context 406 (2001). By the way, does anyone know how to make the "o" character with a flat line above it, instead of "ô"?
Comments
Posted by: PG | February 22, 2005 12:30 PM