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The Cambridge Handbook of Comparative Law (Cambridge Law Handbooks) edited by Mathias Siems and Po Jen Yap is an exceptionally interesting and innovative contribution to cosmopolitan comparative law. It offers many new perspectives from around the globe, on both traditional and emerging topics, and ranges widely to encompass law in spaces beyond and within the national state, and increasingly standard-based and technical methods of ruling. Some may argue that handbooks are outdated in the new digital world; our “information society” accesses whatever it needs online. This handbook offers a perfect counterargument to this tenuous claim. I am convinced that, because of its comprehensiveness and elaborate argument, this companion volume will serve as a premier authority for generations of comparatists, as well as other seekers of legal knowledge. This is a rich, innovative and expertly written handbook. The fundamental thrust of this book is a critical appraisal of comparative law from multiple perspectives, ranging from methodologies, legal families, key themes, to non-state-centric fields. The handbook achieves a quantum leap for comparative law scholarship and surely points an adventurous route for those who wish to embark on deeper inquiries.
Comparative law is a common subject-matter of research and teaching in many universities around the world, and the twenty-first century has aptly been termed 'the era of comparative law'. This Cambridge Handbook of Comparative Law presents a truly global perspective of comparative law today. The contributors are drawn from all parts of the world to provide different perspectives on how we understand the 'law' and how it operates in practice. In substance, the Handbook contains 36 chapters covering a broad range of topics, divided under the following headings: 'Methods of Comparative Law' (Part I), 'Legal Families and Geographical Comparisons' (Part II), 'Central Themes in Comparative Law' (Part III); and 'Comparative Law beyond the State' (Part IV). Given its broad geographical and substantive coverage, this Handbook aims to appeal to a wide international readership. Its primary audience is likely to be academics and students interested in the methods, ideas and concepts of comparative law. A secondary audience would be legal and other scholars who are not comparative lawyers in a narrow sense. After all, nowadays, even lawyers whose core interest pertains to a particular domestic legal system often come across foreign sources of law in their professional lives. Moreover, scholars in disciplines other than law also engage in comparative legal research. Therefore, the Handbook may also appeal to researchers in fields such as anthropology, political science, economics and sociology.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: A New Handbook for Comparative Law in a Global Context
Mathias Siems and Po Jen Yap
Traditional Methods
Jaakko Husa
Historical-Jurisprudential Methods
Jean-Louis Halpérin
Critical Methods
Thomas Coendet
Culture and Comparative Law Methodology
Qian Xiangyang
Linguistic Approaches
Łucja Biel
Qualitative Fieldwork
Petra Mahy, Richard Mitchell, John Howe, Ingrid Landau and Carolyn Sutherland
New Institutional Economics
Olive Sabiiti
Empirical Methods
Mathias Siems
Machine-Learning Methods
Han-wei Ho, Patrick Chung-Chia Huang and Yun-chien Chang
Civil Law
Andrea Ortolani
Common Law
Shivprasad Swaminathan
Confucian Legal Tradition
Ngoc Son Bui
Former Soviet States of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia
Andrey Shirvindt
Latin America
Isabel Zuloaga and José Manuel Díaz de Valdés
Middle East and North Africa
Radwa S. Elsaman
South Asia
Rehan Abeyratne
Sub-Saharan Africa
Charles Manga Fombad
The Tradition of Comparative Law: Comparison and Its Colonial Legacies
Helge Dedek
Decolonial Theory and Comparative Law
Roger Merino
Legal Transplants: A Theoretical Framework and a Case Study from Public Law
Margit Cohn
Legal Transplants: A Case Study of Private Law in Its Historical Context
Gerardo Caffera, Rodrigo Momberg and María Elisa Morales
Convergence and Divergence in Public Law
Po Jen Yap
Convergence and Divergence in Company Law
Hatice Kübra Kandemir
Law and Development
Yong-Shik Lee and Andrew Harding
Divided Legal Systems: Understanding Legal Systems in Conflict-Prone Societies
M. Bashir Mobasher and Haroun Rahimi
Legal Pluralism and Commerce
Ada Ordor, Nojeem Amodu and Victor Amadi
Comparative International Law
Danielle Hanna Rached and Conrado Hubner Mendes
Transnational Regulation
Victor V. Ramraj
Quantitative Forms of Legal Governance
Rene Urueña
Comparative International Arbitration Law
Shahla Ali
Cross-Border Judicial Dialogue
Tom Gerald Daly
Comparing Regional Law
Armin Cuyvers
Comparative Conflict of Laws
Yuko Nishitani
Comparative Indigenous Law
Anthony C. Diala
Comparative Legal Education
Tan Cheng-Han, Alan Koh, Topo Santoso, Umakanth Varottil and Jiangyu Wang
Index