The Method and Culture
of Comparative Law:
Essays in Honour of Mark
Van Hoecke
by Maurice Adams
(Editor), Dirk Heirbaut (Editor)
Awareness for the need
to deepen the methodological foundations of legal research is only recent. The
same is true for comparative law, by nature a more adventurous branch of legal
research, which is often something researchers simply do, whenever they look at
foreign legal systems to answer one or more of a range of questions about law,
whether these questions are doctrinal, economic, sociological, etc. Given the
diversity of comparative research projects, the precise contours of the methods
employed, or the epistemological issues raised by them, are to a great extent a
function of the nature of the research questions asked. As a result, the search
for a unique, one-size-fits-all comparative law methodology is unlikely to be
fruitful. That, however, doesn't make reflection on the methodology and culture
of comparative law meaningless. Mark Van Hoecke has, throughout his career,
been interested in many topics, but legal theory, comparative law, and methodology
of law stand out. Building upon Van Hoecke's work, this festschrift brings
together many authors working at the crossroads of these themes: the
methodology of comparative law.