THE METHOD AND CULTURE OF COMPARATIVE LAW: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF MARK VAN HOECKE. Eds Maurice Adams and Dirk Heirbaut Oxford/Portland Oregon: Hart Publishers, 2014. xvii + 328 pp. ISBN 9781849466233. £60.

DOI10.3366/elr.2015.0289
Pages296-297
Published date01 May 2015
AuthorEsin Örücü
Date01 May 2015

This collection of twenty-one essays offers perceptive and critical contributions, celebrating ideas and theories that have been expounded by Mark Van Hoecke and “preoccupied his thinking” over a long and distinguished career. In this beautifully produced volume, leading theorists and researchers look at significant aspects of their fields. The editors tell us that the volume has a chosen theme: the method and culture of comparative law. In order to create a space for all the contributions however, both concepts must be very broadly defined by the reader. The word “culture” for instance, has at least two very broad meanings as it appears in this volume: one looks at legal cultures as “the natural objects of comparison”, with elements ranging from “facts about legal institutions” (John Bell, Roger Brownsword), to “various forms of behaviour” (Souichiron Kozuka and Luke Nottage) or “more nebulous aspects of ideas, values, aspirations and mentalities” (Sean Donlan, Jorn Oyrehagen Sunde). The other meaning is related to “what researching this implies in terms of the research approach, that is the method and methodology, when dealing with legal culture” (here there are specific essays by Patrick Glenn, Jaap Hage, Jaakko Husa, Toon Moonen and Catherine Valcke and Mathew Grellette). Yet...

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