Masahisa Deguchi is Professor of Civil Procedural Law at the Faculty of Law, Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto/Japan). He studied Civil Procedural Law at Chuo University and Freiburg University (Germany). He attained his Master of Laws (Keio University 1988) and Doctor of law (University of Freiburg 1991) through the DAAD-Scholarship.
He was researching as Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Freiburg(1994-1995, 2007), Regensburg(2015) and Cologne(2015). He received the JaDe-Price [Die Stiftung zur Förderung japanisch-deutscher Wissenschafts- und Kulturbeziehungen in Köln] in 2002. In 2006, he received the Cross of Merit on the ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland).
He was Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Law School (2002) and University of Washington Law School in USA (2002). He has been Board Member of Notarial Law in Japan (since 2005), he was Member of Disciplinary Committee at Kyoto Bar Association (2007-2009), and he was Vice President of the International Association of Procedural Law (2007-2015) and has been Honorary Vice President of International Association of Procedural Law (since 2015). He was Visiting Scholar at the Renmin University (2010). He is Member of Examination Committee of Attorney at Law at Kyoto Bar (2011-2019). He was Member of Judicial State Examination in Japan (2012). He is Presidium Member of the Freiburg Alumni and Board Member of Alumni Freiburg e.V. (since 2016). He was Visiting Professor at National Taiwan University in Taiwan (2016). He was Visiting Professor at National Chengchi University in Taiwan (2018).
His fields of research are Civil Procedural Law, Civil Enforcement Law, Civil Injunction Law, Comparative Law, EU-law, and German Law.
Kimio Yakushiji is Professor Emeritus at the School of Law, Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto, Japan). In 1974, he graduated from the School of Law, Kyoto University, and studied the Public International Law master course (L.L.M.) and the doctorate course of the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University (completed the doctoral program having fulfilled the credits in 1979). He then became an assistant professor at Kyoto University, an associate professor of Kobe Institute of Mercantile Marine, then, an associate professor and a professor at College of Law and School of Law, and vice-president of Ritsumeikan University and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU). During this period, he served as one of the assistants of Special Rapporteur Motoo Ogiso on the topic of Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property (1990-1991) of the ILC, and then as one of the legal advisors to the Japanese Delegations to the UN's Conference of the Ad Hoc Committee on Jurisdictional Immunities of the States and their Property (2002, 2003, 2004). He also served as president of the Japan International Human Rights Law Association (2003-2006) and president of the Japanese Society of International Law (2012-2014). From 2011 to 2017, he was a member of the Committee on Enforced Disappearance.
