Comparative Law, Asian Law, and Japanese Law

Abstract

The discipline of comparative law has displayed some renewed vigour after a period of soul-searching, particularly over the last five years. The bulk of much work maintains an excessive focus on black-letter law, but even this has become more relevant to policy-makers, while other comparativists have begun to develop more sophisticated theoretical and empirical insights. These developments create a challenge for Asian law scholarship, which had benefited from the problems afflicting comparative law. Especially for studies of Japanese law, a more encompassing perspective now seems more appropriate.

Keywords: comparative law, Asian law, Japanese law

JEL Classification: K49