This innovative, refreshing, and reader-friendly book is aimed at enabling students to familiarise themselves with the challenges and controversies found in comparative law. At present there is no book which clearly explains the contemporary debates and methodological innovations found in modern comparative law. This book fills that gap in teaching at undergraduate level, and for postgraduates will be a starting point for further reading and discussion.
Among the topics covered are: globalisation, legal culture, comparative law and diversity, economic approaches, competition between legal systems, legal families and mixed systems, comparative law beyond Europe, convergence and a new ius commune, comparative commercial law, comparative family law, the 'common core' and the 'better law' approaches, comparative administrative law, comparative studies in constitutional contexts, comparative law for international criminal justice, judicial comparativism in human rights, comparative law in law reform, comparative law in courts and a comparative law research project. The individual chapters can also be read as stand-alone contributions and are written by experts such as Masha Antokolskaia, John Bell, Roger Cotterell, Sjef van Erp, Nicholas Foster, Patrick Glenn, Andrew Harding, Peter Leyland, Christopher McCrudden, Werner Menski, David Nelken, Anthony Ogus, Esin Örücü, Paul Roberts, Jan Smits and William Twining. Each chapter begins with a description of key concepts and includes questions for discussion and reading lists to aid further study.
Traditional topics of private law, such as contracts, obligations and unjustified enrichment are omitted as they are amply covered in other comparative law books, but developments in other areas of private law, such as family law, are included as being of current interest.
Table of Contents:
I. Comparative Law at a Cross-roads
1. Comparative Law and Comparative Legal Studies David Nelken
2. Developing Comparative law Esin Örücü
II. New Directions for Comparative Law
3. Globalisation and Comparative Law William Twining
4. Com-paring H. Patrick Glenn
5. Defining and Using the Concept of Legal Culture David Nelken
6. Is it so Bad to be Different? Comparative Law and the Appreciation of Diversity Roger Cotterell
7. The Economic Approach: Competition between Legal Systems Anthony Ogus
8. A General View of 'Legal Families' and of 'Mixing Systems' Esin Örücü
9. Beyond Europe Werner Menski
III. New Territories for Comparative Law
10. Convergence of Private Law in Europe: Towards a New Ius Commune? Jan M Smits
11. Comparative Family Law: Moving with the Times? Masha Antokolskaia
12. Comparative Commercial Law: Rules or Context? Nicholas HD Foster
13. Administrative Law in a Comparative Perspective John Bell
14. Comparative Law in Constitutional Contexts Andrew Harding and Peter Leyland
15. Comparative Law for International Criminal Justice Paul Roberts
16. Judicial Comparativism and Human Rights Christopher McCrudden
17. Comparative Private Law in Practice: The Process of Law Reform Sjef Van Erp
18. Comparative Law in Practice: Courts and the Legislator Esin Örücü
19. A Project: Comparative Law in Action Esin Örücü
Index
About the Author :
Esin Örücü is Professorial Research Fellow and Professor Emerita of Comparative Law, University of Glasgow, Professor Emerita of Comparative Law, Erasmus Universiteit, Rotterdam and Visiting Professor of Comparative Law at Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey.
David Nelken is Distinguished Professor of Legal Institutions and Social Change at the University of Macerata, Italy; Distinguished Research Professor of Law, University of Wales, Cardiff and Visiting Professor of Law at the London School of Economics, UK. He has been chosen for the 2009 Sellin- Glueck award in criminology, the highest award given by the American Society of Criminology to scholars from outside the USA. He will be presented with the award - for his 'extraordinary record of scholarship' - at the Society's international conference in Philadelphia in November.
Review :
undoubtedly an invaluable addition to the teaching arsenal of comparative law.
In sum, the Handbook is not merely a reference work - a collection of informational pieces on the discipline - but also provides the average reader with a contemporary picture of comparative law.
This new handbook is…very valuble, not only for the academic audience but also for students who may use this book instead of a traditional comparative law textbook.
When it comes down to it, this Handbook is a worthy attempt to provide an accessible and useful overview of the fluid, contested and generally infuriating discipline of comparative law. ...this volume is undoubtedly a beneficial contribution to the literature in the field.
Each chapter is introduced with a list of key words. A practical feature deemed particularly appropriate for students new to comparative law is a list [of] questions placed at the end of each chapter but before a bibliographical list including further reading. Moreover, the further reading given is sufficiently broad to be useful for novices and as well as more advanced comparative law scholars...this book offers the reader a valuable insight into contemporary debates on comparative law...The division of the Handbook into three sections is an accessible way of structuring the book. It enables the reader to gain a general understanding of the theoretical debates surrounding a subject area before seeing these debates applied in a field of substantive law...an excellent overview of twenty-first century debates and problems surrounding comparative law.
The Handbook is a welcome addition to the literature. One of its benefits is that comparative law is put into context as it is considered from both theoretical and substantive perspective…A wide range of topics is covered and this will allow lecturers to 'pick and choose' whichever topics are most suited to their course.
This collection of papers is as much an introduction to the challenges facing comparative law today, as it is an introduction to what it means to engage in interdisciplinary legal research.
