This paper discusses new directions in comparative law. It shows that the field of comparative law has become more diverse, both in its methods and by turning its attention to new topics. These changes have occurred, first, as traditional comparative law has increasingly allowed modifications to...

Legal scholars, economists and other social scientist often refer to the idea that countries can be classified into a number of ‘legal families' or ‘legal origins'. Yet, this research is unsatisfactory as regards the actual classifications of the legal systems of the world. It is the aim of...

It is one of the common objectives of comparative law to make suggestions on how the law can be improved. In reality, however, comparative lawyers are often uncertain of what to conclude from their findings. For example, having examined a number of legal systems in detail, shall the comparatist...

Legal scholars, economists and other social scientist often refer to the idea that countries can be classified into a number of “legal families” or “legal origins”. Yet, this research is unsatisfactory as regards the actual classifications of the legal systems of the world. Legal...

Legal scholars often classify countries into ‘legal families’. The research on ‘legal origins’ refers to this literature; yet, it then goes further as it uses distinct categories into which each country’s law is allocated in quantitative studies. Today, this line of research, which goes...

Recent years have seen a growing literature on cross-citations (i.e. citations between courts from different countries). What explains why such cross-citations occur between some courts but not others? This paper addresses this question with original data on 2,967 citations between the...

How do judges engage with foreign case law? While prior research identified some instances where courts are willing to cite foreign judgments, details about the mode of engagement and the motivation of such cross-citations are often left unexplored. This article aims to fill these gaps. It...

Global social indicators have become a core point of interest of scholarship in law and other social sciences. The term ‘legitimacy’ is occasionally mentioned in this literature but without in-depth discussion. This article aims to fill this gap by way of exploring the relationship between...

Law has to be able to respond to new or changing circumstances. This adaptability of the law may be more important than details in the law as such. However, its meaning and its significance have not yet been analysed in detail. Thus, legal adaptability will be examined in this article. It looks...

Should courts consider cases from other jurisdictions? The use of foreign law precedent has sparked considerable debate in the United States, and this question is also controversially discussed in Europe. In this paper and within the larger research project from which it has developed, we study...