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BOOK REVIEW – CRITIQUE BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE

Document Cited in Related
AuthorDr Sylvie Langlaude
DOI10.3366/E0954889008000224
Published date01 September 2008
Date01 September 2008
Pages274-276

At the launch of Comparative Law: A Handbook (hereinafter the Handbook) organised at the Society for Advanced Legal Studies in December 2007, Esin Örücü expressed her concern that too much methodology in comparative law focused on private law. The publication of this book changes this for good. It aims to cover both theoretical and substantive law and introduces areas of comparative law that have been little considered until now.

To start with, one of the main advantages of the Handbook is that it is ‘student-friendly’ and each chapter has a glossary, a list of questions and a further bibliography. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 ‘Comparative law at a cross-road’ includes two chapters and is a general introduction to comparative law. Part 2 ‘New directions for comparative law’ includes seven chapters on some of the theoretical challenges that are currently facing comparative law. Part 3 ‘New territories for comparative law’ includes ten chapters on substantive contemporary areas of law.

The first part of the Handbook raises a number of questions about the aims and methods of comparative law. The question is raised whether comparative law is ‘an end in itself’ or ‘more interested in comparing rules and institutions for the practical purposes of adjudication and law reform.’1

D. Nelken, ‘Comparative Law and Comparative Legal Studies’, in (ed.), E. Orucu and D. Nelken, Comparative Law: a Handbook, Hart Publishing (2007): pp. 3–42, pp. 12–13.

Örücü notes the newly used title of Comparative Legal Studies.2

E. Örücü, ‘Developing Comparative Law’, pp. 43–66, p.~47.

 There is also the question of which sources to turn to – however Werner Menski3

W. Menski, ‘Beyond Europe’ pp. 198–216.

 is the only one to really consider cultural pluralism and to talk about the place of religion in comparative law. Örücü also raises the question about the purposes of comparative law. She notes that ‘as there is no one identifiable method, there is no one identifiable purpose, there is a multiplicity of purposes [and] research has moved in a number of different directions’.4

Örücü, ‘Developing Comparative Law’, p. 53.

 She then lists some of the purposes: to improve and consolidate knowledge of the law and understanding of the law in context, to group legal systems, to broaden the mind and develop tolerance, to engage in legislative law reform, to provide a tool of interpretation for judges (by making them aware of foreign solutions to similar problems when there are none at home), to draw up international conventions and agreements and to harmonise the law. Örücü’s list is more comprehensive than that of Zweigert and Kötz, who see comparative law as an aid to the legislator, as a tool of construction, as a component of the curriculum of universities, as a contribution to the systematic unification of law and to the...

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