Interdisciplinarity in Comparative Law – A Blessing or A Curse?

Interdisciplinary research – the collaboration or conglomeration of knowledge of two or more disciplines – is probably one of the main features in academia over the last 50 years. In comparative law, interdisciplinarity has been honed as the sine qua non. Yet, some have warned against or even criticized interdisciplinary efforts in comparative law research.

Comparative law is often linked with social sciences, economics and linguistics. Some of this interdisciplinary research has been more accepted than the other. Acceptance is usually contingent upon the perceived compatibility of the fields. Thus, comparative law research drawing from legal history is much more recognized than the application of law and economics concepts on a macro-comparative question.

Such bias is unfortunate, because comparative law as a discipline may greatly benefit from thinking outside the box by looking at other – more unusual -fields of research. The challenge is just to make sure that the basic principles of all disciplines combined are kept intact. Generally, collaboration among researchers seems to be the ideal way to go. Yet, unfortunately, legal academia tends not to be very open for that. So another solution might be to ensure better knowledge on an individual level through in-depth study of the other field used.

In subsequent posts, I intend to discuss some recent research on and in interdisciplinary comparative law.

Bibliography

• Jaakko Husa, Interdisciplinary Comparative Law – Between Scylla and Charybdis?, 9 J. Comp. L 28-42 (2014).
• Pierre Legrand, Le Droit Compare 3e ed. 47-48 (2009).
• Geoffrey Samuel,  Does One Need an Understanding of Methodology in Law Before One Can Understand Comparative Law Methodology? 177-208, in: Methodologies for Legal Research: Which Kind of Method for What Kind or Discipline (Mark van Hoecke, ed. 2011).