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COMPARATIVE LAW: A HANDBOOK. Ed by Esin Örücü and David Nelken Oxford: Hart Publishing (www.hart.oxi.net), 2007. x and 469 pp. ISBN 9781841135960. £35.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date01 May 2008
AuthorMathias M Siems
DOI10.3366/E1364980908240485
Pages334-336
Date01 May 2008

This reviewer recently speculated as to the “end of comparative law”: see (2007) 2 The Journal of Comparative Law 133. However, one could also identify an increasing interest in the subject. In the last two years three comparative law handbooks have been published. Apart from the book under review, edited by Esin Örücü and David Nelken, these are The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law (ed by Reimann and Zimmermann, Oxford University Press, 2006; reviewed in (2008) 12 EdinLR 153) and the Elgar Encyclopaedia of Comparative Law (ed by Smits, Edward Elgar, 2006). One may reasonably wonder whether there is really a need for all three of these books. As depicted in the Venn diagram above, there is some overlap between the authors. Admittedly, this concerns only a minority of the chapters. For instance, in the book edited by Örücü and Nelken there are not only the seven “usual suspects” who already contributed to the Oxford Handbook and/or the Elgar Encyclopaedia, but also chapters written by nine other authors (Antokolskai, Foster, Harding, Leyland, McCrudden, Mensi, Ogus, Roberts, Twining).

Moreover, the book edited by Örücü and Nelken differs in substance from the two other handbooks because it focuses on “contemporary debates and methodological innovations found in modern comparative law”. For instance, there are very good discussions on the relationship between globalisation and comparative law (69-89, Twining), the concept of legal culture (109-132, Nelken), non-European legal systems (189-216, Menski), contextualised comparative commercial law (263-285, Foster) and comparative law in practice (399-433, Van Erp and Örücü). This new handbook is therefore very valuable, not only for the academic audience but also for students who may use this book instead of a traditional comparative law textbook.

Still, one may be wondering whether there is an “elephant in the room” which is missed by all three handbooks. One may think about Pierre Legrand and his controversial research. The table below counts how many articles have cited the academics who contributed to at least two of the handbooks. Furthermore, it includes two additional names (at the end, in italics). It can be seen that Pierre Legrand is indeed one of the most cited contemporary comparative lawyers. It may therefore be somehow unsatisfactory that he did not participate in any of the handbooks (or was not asked to do so). To be sure, in the book edited by Örücü and Nelken his research is frequently...

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