Almost any research on law is improved when done on different laws. Almost any research on foreign law relies on implicit comparison with the researcher’s own legal order. In other words, most legal research is, or should be, comparative. But how, specifically, do we compare laws? Is there one comparative law method, or many, or maybe none? What is the state of the art of the discipline of comparative law, and how does the vibrant theoretical and methodological discussion in the discipline translate into concrete research methods? And what role does comparative law play in the need to decolonize legal research? These are just some of the important topics that Max Planck Law researchers can expect to have clarified at Professor Ralf Michaels’ upcoming presentation on the uses and misuses of comparative legal methods, and their increasingly significant role in contemporary legal scholarship.
Legal Research Methods is an Initiative of Max Planck Law and this event is part of its 2023 programme. Find out more.