Comparative Law and Language

Abstract

The study of language is a cognitive model for comparative law. Language’s own dependence on translation is instructive in understanding comparative law in terms of the contrasting categories that undergird the civil and common law legal systems. Comparative law is situated between deeply entrenched, mutually contradictory aspirations of universalism and pluralism. While former domains of pluralism and difference are receding, difference itself remains undiminished. Comparative law’s effectiveness as a translator of the foreign depends on how well its acquired skills and methods can be adapted to new kinds of foreignness.