Table of Contents
\iknowledgements.................................................................................vii
1. Introduction......................................................................................1
I.  About this Book........................................................................2
II.   Legal Culture in Focus..............................................................3
] II.  Structure of the Book................................................................5
2. Comparative Law as a Discipline—A Short History.........................6
I. History of Comparative Law in a Nutshell...............................6
A.   Birth of Modern Comparative Law....................................8
II. Comparative Law in the Twenty-first Century..........................9
A.   Legal Systematics and Comparison:
Private Law v Public Law................................................12
3. Comparative Law—Definitions and Distinctions............................16
1.   Challenge of Further Definition..............................................17
A.   Crossing the Borders........................................................17
IT.  Comparative Study of Law.....................................................19
A. Universalism?...................................................................20
B. Research Results and their Use........................................22
C. Restrictions on Use..........................................................23
III. The Theory of Comparative Law............................................24
A. Macro-comparison...........................................................25
B. Theory and Methodology................................................26
C. Special Features................................................................27
4. Comparative Law—One of the Legal Disciplines...........................29
I. Part of a Larger Field of Knowledge.......................................29
II. A Member of the Family of Legal Studies...:...........................30
A. Comparative Law and the Normative Approach.............30
B. Comparative Law and the Roots of Law......................... 34
C. Comparative Law and Sociological
Dimensions of Law........................,.................................37
D. Theoretical and Philosophical Dimensions of Comparative Law............................................................42
E. Linguistic and Economic Dimensions—Comparative
Law Reloaded..................................................................46
Table of Contents
III. Comparison and Fields of Law............................................48
A. Private International Law..............................................49
B. Public International Law...............................................52
IV. Difficulty of Demarcation.............................................,......55
5. Why Compare?...............................................................................58
I. Starting Points—Creating Added Value................................59
II. Comparison as a Cross-border Form of Knowledge Acquisition...........................................................................60
A. About Proportions........................................................62
B. Different Needs.............................................................65
III. Comparison as Thinking Outside the Box............................66
A,  Away from Ethnocentrism.............................................68
IV. Basic Knowledge-interests....................................................70
V. Integrativity and Contradictivity..........................................71
A. The Historical Dimension.............................................72
B. Recent Integration in Europe........................................75
C. New or Old Ius Commune}..........................................76
D. The International Dimension and Knowledge-interest of Comparison...............................81
E. Other Dimensions.........................................................85
VI.   Practical v Theoretical Approach.........................................86
A. Practicality....................................................................86
B. Theoreticalness..............................................................90
VII. Pedagogical—Comparison in Teaching and
Learning Law.......................................................................91
6. Basic Strategies in Comparison.......................................................96
I.  Introduction.........................................................................96
A. Method—Methodology.................................................97
B. Methodological Choices of a Technical Nature...........100
II. Scope—From Macro to Micro...........................................100
A. Comparison—Macro and Micro.................................100
B. New or Old—Micro or Macro...................................102
III. In Time and Space—The Time Dimension.........................104
A.   Transplants and Loans................................................105
IV. Quantity.............................................................................108
V. The Diversity of Legal Systems—Transnationality..............110
A.   Transnational Law......................................................Ill
VI. Cultural Dimensions and their Overlapping.......................114
A.  Too Many Sources?.....................................................115
VII. Methodological Choices of Theoretical Nature..................117
VOL   Functionality—Functional Comparative Law.....................118
A. The Same Idea as a Starting Point................................119
B. Getting Rid of System-specific Labels......................... 122
C. Problems and Transformation of the Functional Approach.......................... 1-73
Table of Contents xi
D.  Translating Legal Language and
Functional Comparison...............................................125
] X.   Structural Dimension.........................................................127
A. Structural Elements.....................................................127
B. Structural Comparability.............................................129
C. Dynamic Approach.....................................................132
X.   Systematic Approach..........................................................1 ^3
XL   Critical Study Approaches—Two Examples.......................135
A. Deep Level Comparison and Mentality.......................135
B. Postcolonial Methodology—Orientalism.....................138
XII. Depth of the Study—Decisiveness of the Knowledge-interest............................................................140
XIII. Research Ethics..................................................................143
A.  Honesty in Research...................................................144
XIV. Comparative Methodology—Heuristics?...........................145
7. Comparing—Differences and Similarities......................................147
I. Need for a Yardstick for Comparison—Tertium
Comparationis...................................................................148
A.  Tertium and the Preference for Functional
Comparison?.....................................................•.........151
II. Differences and Similarities................................................154
III. Culture and Explanation....................................................157
A.  Mentality....................................................................160
IV. Economic Factors...............................................................163
V.   Historical Factors...............................................................165
A. Colonialism.................................................................166
B. Understanding Institutions and their Adoption...........168
C. The Presence of the Past..............................................172
VI. Geography and Climate.....................................................174
A.   Neighbourhood...........................................................175
VII. Other Factors.....................................................................177
VIII.   Differences between Explanatory Factors..........................179
IX.   The Presumption of Similarity?..........................................181
A.   Diffusion and Similarity..............................................184
8. Comparison—Obstacles and Difficulties.......................................187
I. Comparative Research—Between the Familiar and
the Foreign.........................................................................187
II. Research Data Related Problems.......................................189
III. Pitfalls in Research-material Processing
and Analysis.......................................................................193
A. The Problem of Legal Language..................................193
B. Multilingualism...........................................................196
C. The Significance of Context........................................198
IV. Side-step to Theory: Comparing Laws, but what Laws?......200
xii   Table of Contents
A. Validity of Law.............................................................201
B. Pluralism and Law........................................................204
V. Legal Comparison—A Particularly Risky Business?.............205
VI.   Comparison as a Learning Process......................................207
9. Macro-comparison.......................................................................210
I. Basic Blocks of Macro-comparison......................................211
A. Common Law...............................................................211
B. Continental Law aka Civil Law....................................213
C. Mixed Legal Systems....................................................215
D. Religious-traditional Law.............................................217
E. What about the Socialist Legal Family?........................219
II. Constructing Macro-constructs...........................................220
A.  Mastering Complexity by Means of Generalisations .... 222
III. Grouping Legal Systems......................................................224
A. Legal Family.................................................................225
B. Nordic Legal Family?...................................................228
C. Legal Culture................................................................229
i. Professional Law...................................................231
ii. Political Law.........................................................232
iii. Traditional Law.....................................................232
D. Legal Tradition.............................................................233
IV. Macro-constructs and Methodology....................................237
A. Change in the Knowledge Environment........................237
B. Concentration on Basic Matters...................................239
V.   Finally..................................................................................241
10. Legal Evolution ?...........................................................................242
I. Is there Evolution in Law?...................................................243
II. Problems in Macro-comparison...........................................247
A.  Changing of Law..........................................................249
III. Limits of Legal Evolution?...................................................250
11. Groupings, Classifications, Categories..........................................253
I. Technical Criteria................................................................255
II. General Requirements.........................................................257
III. History-related Factors........................................................259
IV. Nature of Legal Thinking (Legal Mentality)........................260
A.   Differences Between the Basic Codifications
of Continental Civil Law..............................................262
V.  Factors Related to Societal Ideology....................................265
A.   Law and Development..................................................266
VI. Cultural Factors...................................................................268
VH.  Finally..................................................................................271
Index,
273