Because of transformations in the world’s legal systems, there is a need for reflection about law and legal scholarship globally. There is a growing demand for global legal history; however, there is neither a consensus as to what this history is, nor what objectives this legal historiography pursues, or even how it relates to other disciplines. In addition, global legal history reflects the traditional multiplicity of methods, aims, and forms present in current juridical historiographies. This is why it is difficult to speak about a method of global legal history. This contribution—written from a Western, perspective—can only sketch out a general panorama and some particular methodological problems. It begins by considering meanings of “global legal history,” then sketches out some methodological approaches. The final remarks emphasize that not only the intellectual but also the institutional presuppositions for a global production of legal historical knowledge need to be established.
'Legal tradition' is a term frequently used in legal history and comparative law. The increasing interest in global perspectives on law and history, the dialectics inherent in globalisation as such, as well as some tendencies of 'de-' and 're-tradionalisation', often enhanced by law, have made legal traditions even more topical. But what does 'legal tradition' mean? In this article, I review some characteristic usages of the term by classical authors from both legal history and comparative law, like JH Merryman and Harold J Berman, with special emphasis on the work of Canadian comparative law scholar HP Glenn. Beyond its grounding in contemporary information theory and evidence of an impressive command of legal-historical scholarship, his concept of legal tradition as normative information bears analytical potential for legal historians and should be read as an invitation to dialogue between comparative law and comparative legal history.
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