Comparative Law in a Global Context

Professor of South Asian Laws, Department of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

• Part I. Comparative Theoretical Framework: Introduction: Globalisation and Asian and African Legal systems; 1. Comparative law and legal theory from a global perspective; 2. Legal pluralism in legal theory and comparative law; 3. Comparative jurisprudence: images and reflections of law; Part II. Regional Comparisons in a Global Context: 4. Hindu law: The search for appropriateness; 5. Muslim law: God's law or men's law?; 6. African law: the search for law; 7. Chinese law: code and conduct; Concluding analysis: Towards global legal realism.

'This is a sprawling, engaged and engaging study in comparative jurisprudence. It provides, as the title indicates, an extended comparative study of the legal systems that function in Africa and Asia … But it seeks to do much more than that. It takes on conventional claims in contemporary Anglo-American jurisprudence on the nature, sources and scope of law, and finds the dominant accounts of the concept of law within this jurisprudence flawed and incomplete. … Menski's core thesis is that the search for a uniform set of rules for a global order is bound to be futile because laws embody and reflect the socio-cultural particulars and experiences of functioning societies, and which, although transmitted longitudinally within the society, are nonetheless complex, fluid and dynamic. Any adequate theory of law and of a legal order therefore must, among other considerations, take account of the particularized socio-political institutions of the society, that society's belief systems, its politics and its history. The one universal characteristic of all legal systems, he claims, is thus the inherent tendency towards 'plurality-consciousness.' … Teachers who are genuinely interested in arming their students with effective long-term tools with which to deal in a heterogeneous world, as it in fact is, has been, and will likely remain, should find this book very helpful.' Law & Politics Book Review