Functional Method in Comparative Law – Much Ado About Nothing?

Abstract

According to sceptics there seems to be no point in talking about the functional method in comparative law or functionalism in scholarly comparative law. It has been claimed that functional comparative law ‘stands for everything that is bad about mainstream comparative law’ to its opponents. This article seeks to understand and explain the quintessential qualities of functionalism in order to highlight why it is so resilient. It is argued that there are certain qualities of functionalism which make it an intuitively tempting metaphor for a lawyer and especially for a Western comparative lawyer. One crucial motivational force behind the core argument of this paper is a suspicion according to which there has been perhaps too much ado about nothing in the debate over functionalism in comparative law.