Comparative Law as Method and the Method of Comparative Law

Abstract

This article is a late draft of the identically titled second chapter of Maurice Adams and Dirk Heirbaut (eds.), The Method and Culture of Comparative Law. Essays in Honour of Mark Van Hoecke, Hart Publishing, Oxford and Portland, Oregon 2014, 37-52. It addresses both the justificatory role of comparative law within legal research (comparative law as method) and the method of comparative law itself. In this connection two questions will be answered:

1. Is comparative law a method, or a set of methods, for legal research?

2. Does comparative law have a proper method of its own?

In answering these two questions, the article develops an account of the nature of a scientific method and the relation between method and methodology.

Keywords: comparative law, methodology, scientific method