Book Review: Methods of Comparative Law
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1201900405 |
| Author | Emma Patrignani |
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
19 MJ 4 (2012) 549
BOOK REVIEW
Pier Giuseppe Monateri (ed.), Methods of Comparative Law, Edward Elga r Publishing,
Cheltenham and Northampton 2012, xi + 325 pp., hardback , £115, ISBN 978–1–84980–
252–9.
Emma Patrignani*
§1. OVERVI EW
Scholarly debates on various theoretical issues arising from comparative studies of law
are both passionate and signi cant. An array of ideas from many ongoing discussions
are applied and scruti nized within this publication, in order to challenge the classical
paradigm of comparative law and to overcome the malaise it has su ered from. is
published collection of essays is grounded in an evolving world of legal comparativism.
As the editor puts it in the introduct ion, ‘the renovation of Comparative Law feeds upon
the pliable, uid and multidimensional nature of t he voices that embody it’.1
Methods of Comparative Law brings together old a nd new names to the eld, covering
a range of subject areas such as par ticular judicial activities, legal transpla nts, and the
ranking of lega l systems according to e ciency criteria. e hete rogenous nature of this
anthology demonstrates t he potential of alternative projects, when compared to more
limited approaches adopted by orthodox pract itioners and mainstream legal scholars. A
com mon fe atu re fou nd wi thi n th is co llec tio n of es says is no tabl y the auth ors’ e xplo rati on
of innovative approaches to the subject of comparative law.
Various books of a similar str ucture have appeared in the last decade, ch ie y written
on matters of methodolog ical and epistemological developments withi n comparative
law.2 Pier Giuseppe Monateri has been an active participant within this discussion but
* PhD Candidate , Legal Cultures in Transit ional World (LeCTra), Doctoral Programme , University of
Lapland.
1 P.G. Mo na te r i (e d. ), Me thods of Comparat ive Law (Edward Elga r Publishing , Cheltenham a nd
Northampton 2012), p. 1.
2 Such as A. Hardi ng and E. Örücü (eds.), Comparat ive law in the 21st century (Kluwer Law Internation al,
London 2002); P. Legrand a nd R. Munday (eds.), Comparative Legal Stu dies: Traditions and Transitions
(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003); M. Van Hoecke (ed.), Epistemology and Methodology
of Comparative Law (Har t Publishing, Oxford 20 04); M. Reimann and R. Zimme rmann, e Oxford
Handbook of Comparative L aw (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006); J.M. Smits (ed.), Elgar
encyclopedia of co mparative law (1st edition, Edwa rd Elgar Publishing , Cheltenham and Nort hampton
2006, a 2nd edit ion appeared in 2012); E. Örücü a nd D. Nelken (eds.), Comparative Law – A Handbook
(Hart Publis hing, Ox ford 2007); P. Legrand (ed.), Comparer l es droits, rés olument (Presses Universitaires
de France, Par is 2009); M. Van Hoecke (ed.), Methodologies of l egal research: which kind of meth od for
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