Comparative

Law

Comparative Comparative
Jurisprudence Legislation

is in the nature of a
is an expression of subterfuge i.e. a
the belief that the deception, seems to
main purpose of have been devised in
comparison is to aid order to emphasise
the historian or jurist the practical as
in tracing the origin opposed to the
and development of academic aspects of
concepts common to comparative legal
all systems of law. research
 Comparative
Legislation

stresses two features of the results which

may be obtained by the use of the
comparative method

the collection and the utilization of the

distribution of experience gained in
information as to the other systems of law
foreign law reform.
Meaning and Definition
It is understood more broadly as that academic discipline that deals with
the diversity and plurality of legal systems. This encompasses three strands.

Comparison Analysing Development

• of legal rules and • the mutual • of a general
orders of interactions and understanding of
different legal influences law and legal
systems, including between legal theory on the
the recognition, orders. basis of individual
explanation and legal phenomena.
evaluation of
similarities and
differences, and,
if desired, the
determination of
the better law.
HC Gutteridge, the doyen of the discipline dismisses the question of
defining comparative law - since the subject matter is non-existent,
it defies definition.

The phrase is employed to describe a process or method by which

two or more legal systems or parts thereof are compared with a
definite aim.

The definitions which have been framed do not deal with the nature
of comparative law but only its objects.

Holland – Comparative Law collects and tabulates the legal

institutions of various countries and from the result thus prepared,
the abstract science of jurisprudence is enabled to set forth an
orderly view of the ideas and the methods which have been
variously realised in actual systems.
Maine – the chief function of comparative jurisprudence is to
facilitate legislation and the practical improvement of law.

Rheinstein – the term should be reserved to demonstrate those

kinds of scientific treatment of law which go beyond the taxonomic
or analytical description of technical application of one or more
systems of positive law.

Ihering – legal science without comparison could scarcely rise above

the level of provincial casuistry and empirical craft.