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Power, culture and method in comparative law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2009

Reza Banakar
Reza Banakar*
Affiliation:
Professor, School of Law, University of Westminster, London
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Abstract

This review essay draws on a recently edited handbook by Esin Örücü and David Nelken to reflect on the methodological concerns and challenges of comparative law and sociolegal research. It argues that the contextualisation of laws should be regarded as the indispensable methodological characteristic of all comparative studies of law that aspire to transcend the understanding of law as a body of rules and doctrine. It further argues that although the cultural perspective facilitates contextualisation of the law, a cultural understanding is neither a precondition for undertaking comparative legal research nor necessarily the correct approach under all circumstances; for certain aspects of law and legal behaviour need not be conceptualised in cultural terms. The essay concludes by proposing that the combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches could provide a meta-methodological framework within which specific comparative techniques can be employed. Such a framework will enable comparatists and sociolegal researchers to account for how law interacts with, and simultaneously manifests itself at, the macro-, micro- and the intermediary meso-levels of society over time.

Type
Review essay
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 69 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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