As legal practice becomes more global, law students need to prepare themselves for careers that increasingly require knowledge of more than one legal system. This course provides students with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with comparative law’s methodologies for the study of diverse legal traditions. The basic aims, traditions, methods and achievements of comparative law will be taken up while focusing on particular legal jurisdictions and regions. Given the global influence of both the common law system and the civil law system of continental Europe, the course will begin with a general introduction to the history, institutions and methodologies of the civil law. The common law tradition will also be examined through the prism of comparative analysis so that its historical contingencies and idiosyncratic configurations become illuminated from an external point of view. The course will also investigate several non-Western legal systems, introducing students to their distinct institutions, histories and motifs. The mutual influences, not always balanced, between Western and non-Western legal traditions, will also be explored. The proclivity of the discipline of comparative law to define itself in predominantly Euro-American terms will be critically examined. Readings on the institutions and doctrines of legal traditions will be complemented with materials on the most significant social, economic, and political factors that shape legal cultures.
As with any study of international, foreign, or comparative law, some knowledge of a language other than English is useful, but is not required for the course.
Method of Evaluation: Evaluation will be by means of a paper proposal, a final paper, a group presentation, and class attendance. Papers for this course can be submitted to meet the upper year writing requirement.