Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable diversity in law, 5th Edition

• Winner of the Grand Prize of the International Academy of Comparative Law
• Provides an overview of major legal institutions and principles in each tradition facilitating understanding of law in a broader context
• Provides a comprehensive treatment of major legal traditions of the world and incorporates a superb level of scholarship and analysis
• Adopts a genuinely global perspective making it an invaluable resource for courses worldwide
• Includes extensive references and web links at the end of each chapter, to aid and encourage further research

New to this edition

• Includes use of legal tradition as explanatory device in different areas of law
• Covers increasing recognition of chthonic legal tradition
• Reflects increasing anti-corruption activity
• Includes recent writing on neuroscience and law
• Rejects the concept of nation-state in favour of that of the cosmopolitan state

Legal Traditions of the World places national laws in the broader context of major legal traditions, those of chthonic (or indigenous) law, talmudic law, civil law, islamic law, common law, hindu law and confucian law. Each tradition is examined in terms of its institutions and substantive law, its founding concepts and methods, its attitude towards the concept of change and its teaching on relations with other traditions and peoples. The concept of legal tradition is explained as non-conflictual in character and compatible with new and inclusive forms of logic.

Readership: Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate comparative law courses worldwide. Also of interest to students of legal history, legal philosophy, international development, international human rights and international business.