Book Review: A New Introduction to Comparative Law
| Author | Thera Dieleman,Lotte Meurkens |
| Published date | 01 August 2015 |
| Date | 01 August 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X1502200410 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
22 MJ 4 (2015) 639
BOOK REVIEW
Jaakko Husa, A New Introduction to Comparative Law, Hart Publish ing, Oxford-
Portland 2015, xii + 284 pp. incl . index, paperback, £22.99, ISBN 978–1–84946–796–4 .
e Facult y of Law at Maastricht University has traditionally been keen on comparative
law. For example, the European Law School (bot h Bachelor and Master programmes)
trains students f rom all over the world in internationa l law and particu larly European
law. Moreover, many course s o er an insight into the legal systems of di erent
Member States of the European Union. Take for example the rst-year course entitled
‘Comparative Contract Law’ and t he elective course ‘European Company Law’, in
which relevant topics are studied from a comparative angle. is generally means that,
apart from developments at the Europea n Union level, attention is given to the laws of
Germany, France, England , the Netherlands and – if time perm its – other jurisdictions.
Given this substantia l international orientation of our faculty and many others, the
Maastricht Journal of Eu ropean and Comparative Law is an excellent platform to rev iew
A New Introduction to Comparative Law by Jaakko Husa, Professor of Comparative
Law and Constitutional L aw at the University of Lapland (Finland). As explained in the
Maastricht Journal ’s Style Sheet for Authors, the focus of the Maast richt Journal is to
analyse the Ius Co mmune Europaeum or ‘the common roots and principles upon which
European legal sys tems are based’.1
With this remarkable book, Husa draws renewed attention to di erent comparative
theories and methodolog ies, as well as to the study of foreign legal s ystems. Comparative
law is thereby presented as a ‘special eld of legal study that is dynamic and open to
innovation’.2 In other words, the lack of one single research approach in compa rative law
automatically gives resea rchers w ho ma ke use of the discipline a lot of freedom, as long
as one is able to identify what is compared , why it is compared and how this comparison
is made. Moreover, the type of comparison used is mainly determined by the purpose
of the comparison, which Husa il lustrates with t he following example: ‘the critical
comparatists who heavi ly criticize the harmonization of Europea n civil law draw t heir
inspiration and methods from totally di erent directions to those who devotedly work
in the interest of legal integration’.3 Accordi ng to the author, the book is especially usefu l
as an advanced textbook on the methodology of comparat ive law for Master students
1 Stylesheet for Aut hors 2015 Edition, p.2.
2 J. Husa, A New Introduc tion to Comparative Law (Hart P ublishing 2015), p.1.
3 Ibid., p.8.
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