In our increasingly globally linked world, comparative law needs to take an ever more crucial role. With the rise of important new developments over the last thirty years, like the proliferation of the computer and the internet, global capital markets that begin in Asia and end in the United States, and the mutual trade in commodities like oil, foodstuffs, and metals, we are linked in important common ways. The computer, and especially its generation of the internet has made us, in effect, a global village. Still, of course, there are differences among areas of the world and countries, notwithstanding our common linkages. And so, that brings us to the topic at hand: assessing the role and methodology of comparative law so that we can come up with a sound methodological framework to better understand the role of law in different countries as a way of promoting insight and knowledge and, perhaps, some degree of harmonization over critical issues or, at least, a measure of common understanding. The gathering of knowledge obtained through comparative law can be a vital portal to a foreign culture. The insights gathered can usefully illuminate the inner workings of a foreign legal system. And these insights can be applied to our own legal culture, helping illuminate different perspectives that may yield a deeper understanding of our legal order. First, some insight into comparative law; the essence of comparative law is the act of comparing the law of one country to that of another. Most frequently, the basis for comparison is a foreign law juxtaposed against the measure of one's own law. But, of course, the comparison can be broader: more than two laws, more than law, more than written words. The key act in comparison is looking at one mass of legal data in relationship to another and then assessing how the two lumps of legal data are similar and how they are different. The essence of comparison is then aligning similarities and differences between data points, and using this exercise as a measure to obtain understanding of the content and range of the data points. Here we need to focus quite carefully on the similarities and differences among the data points derived from the different legal systems.1 What is the substance of the data point? How does it diverge from the point to which it was compared? What is the nature of the divergences? What do the divergences and similarities reveal? On what data are the revelations based? It is not enough simply to compare words on the page. Law sits within a culture. Law both drives and is influenced by the culture of the home country. So we must look beneath the law as written formally in text. We need to excavate the underlying structure of law to understand better what the law really is and how it actually functions within a society. To do this, we need to explore the sub-structural forces that influence law. These can be things like religion, history, geography, morals, custom, philosophy or ideology, among other driving forces. Hopefully, this compilation will benefit students of Comparative Law across the Globe.
