This volume contains contributions to a symposium of scholars from the Nagoya Law School and
the Faculty of Law of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg on the topic Preventive
Instruments of Social Governance. With the social governance by law and the interplay between
substantive legal standards and procedural enforcement the Symposium addressed a topic of both
outstanding academic and practical importance. The legal framework is an essential instrument
in modern rule-of-law societies for defining standards of societal life. Of course ways of
governance by law may vary between legal systems and cultures but in the analysis of legal
governance instruments the interplay between substantive standards and their procedural
enforcement is always of central importance. In the pursuit of certain political or social
goals a legal system is basically faced with two options: the exertion of influence on the
behaviour of its citizens either by means of preventive or of reactive instruments. The
relationship of these two regulatory tools is a key element for the analysis and understanding
of a legal system.
