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Prof.
Alan Watson
Prof. Sima Avramović
(President)
www.simaavramovic.org
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Alan Watson’s
New Book “Comparative Law: Law, Reality and Society”
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Alan Watson
(Author)
This book does not deal with conventional comparative law.
Rules and structures of one system are not set out against those of
another for contrast. Rather, rules particular or general, are examined
to explain why they are as they are, and how they came to be. The author
does not accept that to a great extent law reflects society or the power
of the ruling elite. Chapter one serves as both introduction and
conclusions. The conclusions are: 1) Governments and rulers are not much
interested in developing law, especially not private law, but leave this
to others to whom they do not grant power to make law. 2) Even famous
lawmakers are seldom interested in a particular social issue in law or in
giving law certainty. 3) Borrowing, even mindless, is the name of the
legal game. Chapters range from grand legislation (the Ten Commandments
and Napoleon s code civil) to unrecognized law in action and daily life
(Jesus and the Samaritan woman, Jesus and the adulteress, the claim that
Julius Caesar descended from a slave). Other chapters deal with judges passivity in giving needlessly a judgment they
claimed was unjust, to deciding against the judge s own theoretical and
practical position (Somerset s Case). Likewise stressed is the difficulty
of developing law fit for the society, and of understanding foreign legal
thinking. The survival of law in different circumstances for centuries
and also in a different place is emphasized. The chapters are separate
entities, and the author claims that each must stand on its own merits.
But he insists that if each is plausible, then together they present a
very different approach to law in society from those habitually offered.
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 Buy
Online
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Copyright 2008, Alan
Watson Foundation._All rights reserved.
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