Development of Comparative Law in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria

Abstract

This article provides an overview both of the development of comparative law as a field of research, and of its impact on legal changes in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It focuses on the development of comparative law in the field of the law of obligations. The second section deals with the long nineteenth century. The third section considers the golden age of comparative law, which covers the period of the Weimar Republic. The fourth section discusses the ‘dark age’ of the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s. The fifth section describes recovery and post-war developments until the end of the cold war. The final section focuses on attempts to unify the law and on new approaches to comparative law which have gained in importance in the course of the Europeanization of private law.