Imagination, culture, comparative law

Abstract

The focus of analysis in on literature and imaginative use of language from the viewpoint of comparative law. Chapter is divided into two sections. First section discusses the possibility of fusing law and literature and comparative law. The focus is on analysing how the study of fiction in literature, from a comparative law standpoint, may identify and highlight a way of coding legal cultural knowledge in literature. The interaction between the worlds of law and culture is addressed through an imaginary legal transplant, which provides a link between literary studies and comparative law. Second section deals with the use of metaphor and how it has a surprisingly relevant role for comparative study of law. Metaphor links imagination and legal scholarship together. This section analyses the use of metaphor in comparative law by discussing examples from macro-comparative law. The purpose is to illustrate the benefits of using metaphor in comparative law scholarship. Chapter concludes that both imagination and use of metaphor have potential to benefit comparative study of law.