Comparative Legal Studies: Traditions and Transitions

This 2003 text examines comparative law's intellectual traditions, the strengths and failings of its methodologies and its future directions.

Pierre Legrand (Edited by), Roderick Munday (Edited by)

9780521818117, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 August 2003

532 pages
23.5 x 16.1 x 3.9 cm, 0.935 kg

Review of the hardback: '… this book marks a step forward in comparative law analysis for a number of reasons. These are first of all that the book is wide-ranging in its fields of enquiry; second, that the links between comparative law on the one hand and sociology and jurisprudence on the other hand are brought to light. ' International and Comparative Law Quarterly

The 14 essays that make up this 2003 volume are written by leading international scholars to provide an authoritative survey of the state of comparative legal studies. Representing such varied disciplines as the law, political science, sociology, history and anthropology, the contributors review the intellectual traditions that have evolved within the discipline of comparative legal studies, explore the strengths and failings of the various methodologies that comparatists adopt and, significantly, explore the directions that the subject is likely to take in the future. No previous work had examined so comprehensively the philosophical and methodological foundations of comparative law. This is quite simply a book with which anyone embarking on comparative legal studies will have to engage.

1. Introduction: accounting for an encounter Roderick Munday
Part I. Comparative Legal Studies and its Legacies: 2. The universalist heritage James Gordley
3. The colonialist heritage Upendra Baxi
4. The nationalist heritage H. Patrick Glenn
5. The functionalist heritage Michele Graziadei
Part II. Comparative Legal Studies and its Boundaries: 6. Comparatists and sociology Roger Cotterrell
7. Comparatists and languages Bernhard Großfeld
Part III. Comparative Legal Studies and its Theories: 8. The question of understanding Mitchel Lasser
9. The same and the different Pierre Legrand
10. The neo-romantic turn James Whitman
11. The methods and the politics David Kennedy
Part IV. Comparative Legal Studies and its Futures: 12. Comparatists and transferability David Nelken
13. Comparatists and extraordinary places Esin Örücü
Conclusion
14. Beyond compare Lawrence Rosen
Index.

Subject Areas: Comparative law [LAM]