Comparative Law: Problems and Prospects (original) (raw)

Charting the Domain of Comparative Law: A Jurisprudential and Interdisciplinary Approach

Hiroshima Law Journal , 2022

This paper examines fundamental issues pertaining to the nature and scope of comparative law as a distinct discipline and discusses different theoretical approaches to its subject matter adopted by contemporary comparatists. The paper explores in particular the relationship between comparative law and other fields of legal study and seeks to elucidate the ways in which comparative law contributes to, benefits from, or overlaps with them.

Chapter C.23: Comparative Law and Private International Law

2017

I. Comparative law Comparative law was traditionally defined narrowly as the comparison of different legal systems. Today, it is understood more broadly as that academic discipline that deals with the diversity and plurality of legal systems. This encompasses three strands. The first one is the comparison of legal rules and orders of different legal systems, including the recognition, explanation and sometimes evaluation of similarities and differences, and, if desired, the determination of the better law. A second strand of comparative law is dedicated to analysing the mutual interactions and influences between legal ordersespecially through so-called legal transplants. A third strand, finally, concerns the development of a general understanding of law and legal theory on the basis of individual legal phenomena. All these strands exist both in a pure and an applied variant. Whereas pure comparative law analyses aims merely at the acquisition of knowledge, applied comparative law wants to make such knowledge useful for projects of adjudication and legislation (either legal harmonisation and unification, or domestic law reform). Just as comparative law encompasses a variety of strands, it also encompasses a variety of methods. Comparative law was once confined to the comparison of black letter rules. This was followed by calls for functional comparative laws: legal rules and institution should be compared with regard to their functions, and two institutions are functionally equivalent and thus comparable if they fulfil the same function, even if they are doctrinally different. In addition, and sometimes opposition, much contemporary comparative law is

Comparative Law

Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law of different countries. More specifically, it involves study of the different legal systems in existence in the world, including the common law, the civil law, socialist law, Islamic law, Hindu law, and Chinese law. It includes the description and analysis of foreign legal systems, even where no explicit comparison is undertaken. The importance of comparative law has increased enormously in the present age of internationalism, economic globalisation and democratisation.