Foreign Law in Domestic Courts: Different Uses, Different Implications
IN: Globalizing Justice: Critical Perspectives on Transnational Law and Cross-Border Migration of Legal Norms. Chapter 3, pp.45-63. Eds. Donald W. Jackson, Michael C. Tolley, and Mary L. Volcansek. State University of New York Press, 2010
11 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2012
Date Written: ,
Abstract
This book chapter proposes a typology of the different ways that domestic courts may use foreign law — as binding law, as a nonbinding norm, as an interpretive aid, as a basis for functional comparison, and as factual information — and it explores the implications of these different uses for judicial internalization of external norms. The chapter argues that domestic courts play a key role in transnational processes of norm internalization and diffusion, and it draws on political science scholarship to develop hypotheses about how different uses of foreign law by domestic courts affect these processes.
Keywords: Foreign Law, Comparative Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, Transnational Law, Functionalism, Courts, Supreme Court, Norms, Norm Internalization, Conflict of Laws, Choice of Law
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