Comparative Jurisprudence (II): The Logic of Legal Transplants

Have concepts, will travel: analytical jurisprudence in a global context

“…For at least 20 years anthropologists have acknowledged the weaknesses and distortions of an earlier tradition that treated 'tribes' and 'societies' as isolated, self-contained, timeless units (Collier and Starr, 1989). Alan Watson's 'transplants thesis', even in its weaker and more plausible versions (Ewald, 1995) draws attention to the near-ubiquity of diffusion and transplantation of laws, a fact which goes a long way to account for significant patterns in any realistic picture of law in the world (Twining, 2000, Ch. 6).…”

Water Policy and Cultural Exchange: Transferring Lessons from Around the World to the Western United States

“…These competing arguments about what shapes water laws, and thus what those laws reflect, share a common belief that laws primarily mirror something beyond themselves (Ewald, 1995). At the other end of the spectrum lie the so-called theories of "black-letter law" where legal texts are interpreted more literally and self-referentially.…”

Judicial Reform and Economic Development: A Survey of the Issues

“…At some stages in the development process, the two may be interdependent, while at other stages they may be autonomous. There is no reason not to believe that a similar dynamic may be at work in the interplay between the evolution of the judiciary and economic growth, and the legal transplant school of comparative law has marshaled an enormous body of evidence showing that substantive law develops independent of economic and social variables (Ewald 1995).…”