Closing Remarks for Symposium for the 40th Anniversary of the Center for American Studies, Nanzan University, July 2, 2016

131 NANZAN REVIEW OF AMERICAN STUDIES

Volume 38 (2016): 131-132

Closing Remarks for Symposium for the 40th

Anniversary of the Center for American Studies,

Nanzan University, July 2, 2016

SAWANOBORI Bunji

  First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to all the participants today, and above all, to those who presented the papers for this symposium as well as to the panels.

  Though I don’t have much time to refer to each paper or discussion, all the papers and discussion have been enlightening and insightful, especially in terms of the notion of “American Studies”, for those who have been tackling on the same field just as myself.

  I am just one of the Constitutional Law scholars and as one of them, I studied to some extent, social events, trends, and phenomena in the U.S. as a background. To that limited extent only, I have touched or studied “American Studies”.

  However, the advantage and merits of “American Studies” as I see it, is that it can and it does provide us with three dimensional perspectives. It gives us perspectives of not only political, social, economic, diplomatic, and other points of view, but also ethic, philosophical, and psychological perspectives as well, which are somewhat remote or far away from Constitutional Law Studies I work on. In short, it gives me much broader ways of looking at the U.S. Constitutional Law.

  To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Center for American Studies of Nanzan University today, I would like to emphasize the importance of the fourth dimensional perspective.

  The 40 years are not long, but it is long from a certain point of view. Over 40 years ago, actually about 60 years ago, in 1958, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme * Professor of Constitutional Law at Nanzan University. His current research interests are in the human rights of prisoners and oversight mechanisms of prison systems in different countries, such as the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board (C-ROB) in California, USA, the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) in Canada, Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) and the Prison Inspectorate in England and Wales in the UK, and Le Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté (CGLPL) in France. He served also as a member of the Board of Visitors of Nagoya Prison in Japan for 6 years. He dedicated the Closing Remarks from an aspect of the eighth Amendment of the US Constitution which prohibits “Cruel and Unusual Punishment.”

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Court, Earl Warren, in Trop v. Dulles, which dealt with the eighth Amendment― the eighth Amendment prohibits “Cruel and unusual punishment”―Chief Justice Warren, trying to define the vague term of “Cruel and unusual” said, “The basic concept underlying the eighth Amendment is nothing less than the dignity of man.” But “the dignity of man” itself is vague as well, therefore, Justice Warren goes on to say, “the Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.”

  The fundamental value of the eighth Amendment is, according to him, the protection of the dignity of man, whose standards may “evolve” over the years.   Punishment which was good 60 years ago can be or will not be constitutional any more today. The “Standards of decency” change because, us, human-beings “evolve” and develop ourselves.

  This fourth dimensional perspective of “development and progress” must continue to be proven by history in the future. The 40th Anniversary followed by the 50th Anniversary in the next 10 years, and Anniversaries for decades to come, ARE for THAT sole purpose.