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An International Lawyer Looks at Comparative Law*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

L. C. Green
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Extract

The legal practitioner may well be excused if his approach to comparative law resembles somewhat that of the defence lawyer putting forward the “rolled-up” plea in an action for defamation. Having questioned the very existence of comparative law, he cannot be blamed for covering his retreat by asserting that even if it does exist, it has, for him and his clients at least, no obvious value or significance. Should he refer to the writings of some of the leading acknowledged authorities in the field, he may find that his doubts, far from being lessened, are confirmed and strengthened. What must he feel, for example, when informed by Sir Frederick Pollock, participating in the first International Congress of Comparative Law at Paris in 1900, that “le droit comparé n'est pas une science propre, mais qu'il n'est que l'introduction de la méthode comparée dans le droit.” Should he prefer a more modern exposition, he may refer to Gutteridge writing some fifty years later. The methodological, as distinct from the juridical, character of the subject will appear to be confirmed. “‘Comparative Law’ denotes a method of study and research and not a distinct branch or department of the law. If by ‘law’ we mean a body of rules, it is obvious that there can be no such thing as ‘comparative’ law…[that is to say] any independent rules for the regulation of human relationships or transaction. …[C]omparative law is merely a convenient label attached to a particular method of study and research.”

The international lawyer, too, who adopts some such definition of his field as “that system of laws and regulations which those who operate on the international scene recognize as being necessary for their orderly conduct”, is likely to adopt a similar view, for he is unable to find any system of rules and regulations to which he can apply the term comparative law.

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Articles
Information
Israel Law Review , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , October 1966 , pp. 580 - 592
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and The Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1966

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References

1 Procès-Verbaux, I, p. 60, cited Hall, Comparative Law and Social Theory, 1963, p. 7.

2 Comparative Law, 1949, pp. 1, 41.

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