Comparative Law in the Courtroom and Classroom: The Story of the Last Thirty-Five Years

This book presents an original, deliberately controversial, and, at times, disturbing appraisal of the state of comparative law at the beginning of the 21st century. Looking at the weaknesses, strengths, and protagonists (most of whom were personally known to the author) of comparative law during the preceding thirty-five years, the book is a reminder of the unique opportunities the subject has in our shrinking world. The author brings to bear his experience of thirty-five years as a teacher of the subject to criticize the impact the long association with Roman law has had on the orientation and well-being of his subject. With equal force, he also warns against some modern trends linking it with variations of the critical legal studies movement, and he urges the study of foreign law in a way that can make it more attractive to practitioners and more usable by judges. This monograph represents a passionate call for greater intellectual cooperation. It offers one way of achieving it - a cooperation between practitioners and academics on the one hand and between Common and (modern) Civilian lawyers on the other, in an attempt to save the subject from the marginalization it suffered in the 1980s and from which the globalization movement of the 21st century may be about to deliver it.