Diritto: storia e comparazione Nuovi propositi per un binomio antico

• Main Author: Somma, Alessandro (auth)
• Other Authors: Brutti, Massimo (Editor)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: Italian; English; Spanish
• Published: Frankfurt am Main Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory 2018
• Series: Global Perspectives on Legal History
• Subjects: General & world history; Legal history; Comparative law; legal rules; history of law; Legal History
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

"Comparative law and the history of law are traditionally devoted to expanding the context of legal rules and legal institutions. Comparison involves history, as the well-known motto proclaims, but history also involves comparison. Both disciplines are in fact interested in deepening the space-time coordinates of law as a social phenomenon, which means that they take up a critical approach to their object of study. In recent years, this trait is increasingly coming into conflict with the tendency to present law as a mere technocratic instrument for organizing societies. As a result of the »end of history« discourse, the Western economic and political order has become a definitive point of reference worldwide, with law scholars charged with identifying best practices to enhance their efficiency. A group of comparative lawyers and legal historians critically discuss this assumption from a theoretical point of view as well as from the perspective of their respective fields of research. The result is a multifaceted range of ideas on the significance and possible future of two disciplines that share, in addition to their traditional approach, a crisis of identity."