Comparative Legal Studies ― Traditions and Transitions

The 14 contributions to this collection put together by Legrand (law, the Sorbonne, France) and Munday (law, U. of Cambridge, UK) collectively assess the state of the theory and practice of comparative legal studies in itself and were taken from a July 2000 conference held in the UK, marking the centenary of the landmark Paris Congress of the Societe Fran<,c>aise de Legislation Comparee . The first papers consider comparative legal studies in the contexts of the four major intellectual strands of comparative scholarship: the universalist, colonialist, nationalist, and functionalist heritages. The boundaries of the discipline are discussed in essays considering its relationship to sociology and to the study of languages. Four papers address the general theme of "Comparative Legal Studies and its Theories" in examinations of New Romanticism and the challenge of the diversity of human societies, the political consequences of methodology, and the dangers of legal harmonization. Annotation c2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)