LESSON 1: FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPARATIVE LAW.
1.0. A FRIST APPROACH: WHY DO WE STUDY COMPARATIVE LAW?
•In the natural and medical sciences, and in sociology and economics, as well,
discoveries and opinions are exchanged internationally (no sense “German physics”,
“British microbiology” or “Canadian geology”). These branches of science are
international and the contributions too.
•The position of legal science is different :
–Roman law was the essential source of all law on the Continent of Europe, and
similar unity in the Common Law in the English speaking world.
–On the European continent, however, legal unity began to disappear in the
eighteenth century as national codes were put in the place of traditional Roman law.
–The consequence was that lawyers concentrated exclusively on their own
legislation, and stopped looking over the border. At a time of growing nationalism,
this legal narcissism led to pride in the national system. Germans thought German
law was the best one, and the French thought the same of French law: national
pride became the hallmark (“sello de calidad”) of juristic thought.
•Comparative law started to put an end to such narrow – mindedness. ('' estrechez
de miras'').
1.1. A CONCEPT OF COMPARATIVE LAW.
A) WHAT IS COMPARATIVE LAW?
Comparative Law is the comparasion* of different legal systems of the world (at least,
two). It is a study of the relationship between legal systems or between rules of more than
one system.
* What does ''compare'' mean? : discovery, explanation and evaluation of similarities and
differences.
•Comparative Law can be said to describe the systematic study of particular legal
traditions and legal rules on comparative basis.
What is the nature of comparative law? :
a) It is a branch of law, like ''family law'' or ''property laww'' ?
b) Is there any identifiable body of rules known as ''comparative law'' ?
NO. It does not have a core content of subject areas and does not denote a distinct branch of
sustantive law.
