Comparative Law as Transnational Law

Abstract

This book assembles the works of scholars from around the world, forming a contextual demonstration of the increasing encounters and tensions among legal cultures. In recognizing the lack of consensus on how to define transnational law, the text includes carefully selected works that originally appeared in the German Law Journal in order to help show the challenges of defining transnational law, and to help with the appreciation of the differing approaches towards it. Some, for example, maintain that the processes of transnationalization has created a space for a new, discrete corpus of law—a field in its own right that is the equal of public international law or conflict of laws. Others understand the perceived transnational phenomena to be illustrations of an emerging legal culture that no longer fits the traditional distinction between national and international jurisdictions. In offering different approaches to such an understanding of transnational law, the chapters also bring out the important consequences of a more global outlook in legal scholarship, legal practice, and legal education.