Unlike most other subjects in the law school curriculum, Comparative Law is not a body of rules and principles. It is primarily a method, a way of looking at legal problems, legal institutions, and entire legal systems. By the use of the method of comparison, it becomes possible to make observations and to gain insights that would be denied to one whose study is limited to the law of a single country.
Neither the comparative method, not the insights gained through its use, can be said to constitute a body of binding norms, or a distinct branch of law, in the sense in which we speak of “the law of Torts” or “the law of Decedents’ Estates.” In this respect, the term Comparative Law is a misnomer. It would be more accurate to speak of Comparison of Laws and Legal Systems. However, by the force of tradition, the term Comparative Law has become the accepted title of our subject.
The resources of Comparative Law can be used for a wide variety of practical and scholarly purposes. The following introductory materials are intended to indicate the range of those purposes and, at the same time, to provide initial illustrations of some of the problems and techniques taken up in more detail later on.
Author(s): Rudolf B. Schlesinger et al.
Download the full pdf: comparative-law-introduction-to-comp-law
