This is a contemporary introduction to comparative law, tracing its history, aims and functions and increasing relevance in a rapidly changing world. Topics covered include the origins of civil law and common law traditions, non-Western legal systems and the implications of the EC law as a supranational legal system. It also sharts the decline of the socialist legal tradition in Eastern Europe, the unification of Germany, and the emergence of the new Russian Federation. A comparative study of statutory interpretations and approches to case law is included.

Providing a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the legal approach to key areas of law within different legal systems, this book offers a blueprint for comparative legal study by evaluating the current epistemological debate on comparative law and comparative legal research methods. Substantive law, the law of obligations, commercial and corporate law within the major legal systems of the world are all examined and compared. While France and Germany are generally used as the archetypal civil law jurisdictions and English law as the main common law comparator, this third edition also examines the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet era and socialist legal influences as well as non-Western legal traditions. Fully updated and revised to include all recent developments, this edition also includes a broad historical introduction and outlines changes in EC Law. It assesses the possibility of Europeanization of national legal systems and certain legal topics, the impact of the globalization of legal institutions and the evolving 'new world order' in the early twenty-first century. Written in a clear, user-friendly style, Comparative Law in a Changing World is an accessible source for undergraduates and postgraduates wishing to trace the influence of common law and civil law legal traditions on jurisdictions across the world.

The most up-to-date and contextualised offering for comparative law students and scholars, referencing the newest research in the field.

Now in its second edition, this textbook presents a critical rethinking of the study of comparative law and legal theory in a globalising world, and proposes an alternative model. It highlights the inadequacies of current Western theoretical approaches in comparative law, international law, legal theory and jurisprudence, especially for studying Asian and African laws, arguing that they are too parochial and eurocentric to meet global challenges. Menski argues for combining modern natural law theories with positivist and socio-legal traditions, building an interactive, triangular concept of legal pluralism. Advocated as the fourth major approach to legal theory, this model is applied in analysing the historical and conceptual development of Hindu law, Muslim law, African laws and Chinese law.

Explains that international law is not a monolith but can encompass on-going contestation, in which states set forth competing interpretations Maps and explains the cross-country differences in international legal norms in various fields of international law and their application and interpretation in different geographic regions Organized into three broad thematic sections of conceptual matters, domestic institutions and comparative international law, and comparing approaches across issue-areas Chapters authored by contributors who include top international law and comparative law scholars all from diverse backgrounds, experience, and perspectives.

Climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have brought into focus how vulnerable our “normal” lives are. More than ever, there is a need to regulate the competition for and exploitation of increasingly scare natural resources. But how are the competing interests to be balanced? And who is to undertake the regulation? The air, the climate, and the seas escape national boundaries. And while the reset of the pandemic may have alleviated some of the pressure, it has also highlighted how health and hygiene regimes are of global importance. The present volume does not capture the breadth or depth of current concerns of international environmental law. However, it does offer eight amuse-bouches to whet readers’ intellectual appetites: EU perspectives on habitat protection and risk management in times of climate change and health crises; WTO perspectives on the renewable energy sector and the protection of marine habitats; a discourse on how international law imposes environmental responsibilities with regard to disputed maritime areas; a comparison of national regulations against each other and the international framework for dealing with plastic waste; a look at Kuwait’s evolving approach to waste disposal and management; an examination of Brazil’s legal framework for dam safety in the wake of recent catastrophic events; and finally, a pioneering Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) in regard to destruction of the Amazon

This book deals with the implementation of the rights of the child as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 21 countries from Europe, Asia, Australia, and the USA. It gives an overview of the legal status of children regarding their most salient rights, such as the implementation of the best interest principle, the right of the child to know about of his/her origin, the right to be heard, to give medical consent, the right of the child in the field of employment, religious education of children, prohibition of physical punishment, protection of the child through deprivation of parental rights and in the case of inter-country adoption. In the last 25 years since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted, many States Parties to the Convention have made great efforts to pass legislation regulating the rights of the child, in their commitment to the improvement of the legal status of the child. However, is that enough for any child to live better, safer, and healthier? What are the practical effects of this international as well as many national instruments in the everyday life of children? Have there been any outcomes in terms of improvement of their status around the world, and improvement of the conditions under which they live, since the Convention entered into force? In tackling these questions, this work presents a comparative overview of the implementation of the Convention, and evaluates the results achieved.

In times of rapidly changing social worlds and an ever more fragile controllability of the law, international legal comparison obtains increasing relevance. Frequently, similar or even identical questions and problems must be answered and solved in different legal communities, but there is rarely a single answer or solution. For a decade, the Faculty of Law of the University of Göttingen and the Yonsei Law School in Seoul (Republic of Korea) have engaged in continuous dialogue about both current and fundamental questions of legal reform. In October 2018, the fifth German-Korean Symposium took place. The lectures and presentations covered highly relevant aspects of public environmental law, insolvency proceeding, law of criminal sanctions and law of the constitution of the criminal courts as well as computer crime, including historic and philosophical foundations of the law. This volume combines the elementary contributions and makes them accessible for the interested professional public.

The primary aim of this book is to provide clear and reliable information on a number of central topics in comparative law. At a time when global society is increasingly mobile and legal life is internationalized, the role of comparative law is gaining importance. While the growing interest in this field may well be attributed to the dramatic increase in international legal transactions, this empirical parameter is only part of the explanation. The other part, and (at least) equally important, has to do with the expectation of gaining a deeper understanding of law as a social phenomenon and a fresh insight into the current state and future direction of one’s own legal system. In response to the internationalization of legal practice and theory, law schools around the world have expanded their comparative law programs. Within the legal subjects that form the core of the curriculum there is a greater interest in comparative legal analysis, as well as greater attention to how global developments and international actors and institutions affect domestic law. Transnational legal education based on comparative reasoning is intended to help shape a new generation of lawyers, public servants and other professionals who recognize and respect cultural diversity in an interconnected world. The central topics discussed in this book include: the nature and scope of comparative legal inquiries; the relationship of comparative law to other fields of legal study; the aims and uses of comparative law; the origins and historical development of comparative law; and the evolution and defining features of some of the world’s predominant legal traditions. It also deals with selected theoretical aspects, such as the problem of comparability of legal events; the classification of legal systems into families of law; and the topics of legal transplants, harmonization and convergence of laws. Chiefly intended for students, the book also discusses a number of fundamental issues concerning the development of comparative law, and devotes certain sections to reviewing the salient features of the relevant literature on definitional, terminological, methodological and historical issues.

This is the first book to explore the concept of 'Grotian Moments'. Named for Hugo Grotius, whose masterpiece De jure belli ac pacis helped marshal in the modern system of international law, Grotian Moments are transformative developments that generate the unique conditions for accelerated formation of customary international law. In periods of fundamental change, whether by technological advances, the commission of new forms of crimes against humanity, or the development of new means of warfare or terrorism, customary international law may form much more rapidly and with less state practice than is normally the case to keep up with the pace of developments. The book examines the historic underpinnings of the Grotian Moment concept, provides a theoretical framework for testing its existence and application, and analyzes six case studies of potential Grotian Moments: Nuremberg, the continental shelf, space law, the Yugoslavia Tribunal's Tadic decision, the 1999 NATO intervention in Serbia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.