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Clark, David S. --- "History of Comparative Law and Society" [2012] ELECD 758; in Clark, S. David (ed), "Comparative Law and Society" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Comparative Law and Society

Editor(s): Clark, S. David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849803618

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: History of Comparative Law and Society

Author(s): Clark, David S.

Number of pages: 36

Extract:

1 History of comparative law and society
David S. Clark*


1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Comparative Law

Comparative law is as old as the existence of law. It arose with the first complaint of
injustice directed against human action justified by a legal rule. The complainer, not
having that law on her side, had to rely on a rule existing outside the actor's legal system,
perhaps on a higher law. Ancient illustrations of law and justice may be of significance to
theologians, philosophers or shamans. However, other than a legal anthropologist's inter-
est in preliterate human societies, most comparatists today would not consider historical
examples older than three millennia and much of that consideration is about classical
European legal systems. Nevertheless, modern legal comparatists are continuing to push
the boundaries of their discipline outward, intruding on sister fields in the social sciences
and humanities--from economics to rhetoric--and expanding their consideration to
ancient use of legal comparison in China and other parts of Asia.
The modern view is that comparison is inherent to humans and probably to other
species. This insight comes from diverse disciplines ranging from social psychology to
human evolutionary genetics.1 Social comparison is how we make sense of the world in
which we live and even understand ourselves. Legal comparison concerns that part of
social reality involving laws and legal institutions. From this perspective, comparison
does not need to be justified any more than rationality requires justification. Consciously
rational comparison will involve aims and ...