A Study on the Legal Procurement System for Approved Textbooks in Compulsory Education

This paper employs the law hermeneutics method to explore deficiencies in the procurement law for approved textbooks in compulsory education. The following deficiencies were found: 1. Article 8-3 of National Educational Law conflicts with the principle of charging textbooks costs as “agency fees”. 2. Article 8-3 of National Educational Law violates the “Bestimmtheitsgebot”. 3. The regulation about procuring textbooks drawn up by the Minister of Education violates the “Vorbehalt des Gesetzes”. 4. Procuring textbooks by signing an inter-entity supply contract according to the Government Procurement Act violates “Vorrang des Gesetzes”. This paper also refers to related laws and regulations of the Japanese textbook procurement system and submits suggestions for revising laws for procuring textbooks.