How to Do Comparative Law

Abstract

What do we teachers and scholars of law tell our students when they ask for guidance on how to write a law seminar paper, note, or comment? How do we respond to colleagues who say they are interested in using the comparative law method but want to know what it is? When we are asked to evaluate law scholarship, what standards do we apply? Like most fields of legal scholarship, we do not have an official canon of great works for writing in the field to emulate. Is there even really a comparative law method?' If there is, does it need an overhaul in light of the persistent criticism that law as a field of intellectual endeavor has failed to live up to its promise?2 I believe that there is a comparative method and that it continues to offer strong benefits for the study of law. Most of us who teach and write in the field of law, however, were not taught formally how to do law. Rather, we have for the most