TOM GINSBURG,
PIER GIUSEPPE MONATERI
FRANCESCO PARISI
University of Minnesota
Law School
Legal Studies Research Paper
Series
Research Paper No. 14-09
Classics in Comparative Law:
An Introduction
ABSTRACT: Legal scholars often criticize comparative law for being an overreaching
discipline, lacking a coherent methodology and a well‐defined domain. Nevertheless,
there remains something exciting and potentially enlightening about comparative
law. In these 3 volumes, we present a selection of 77 articles and essays that in our
view illustrates the importance of comparative legal analysis. We survey, in a
necessarily selective and incomplete way, the modern era of comparative law,
beginning in the late 19th century. In this introduction, we summarize many of the
themes in the collection, with special attention to three enduring questions in the
field: how do law and legal systems develop? How do we understand variation? And
why should we care?
