COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: A CONTINUATION OF LAW BY OTHER MEANS (A FEW INCIPIENT THOUGHTS)
Abstract
Comparatists are evidently in no position to see and investigate always the entire picture: even though one of the founders of comparative law stated that the student of problems of law must encompass the law of the whole world, past and present, and everything that affects the law, from geography, climate and race to developments and events shaping the course of a country’s history passing through religion and ethics, the ambition and creativity of individuals, the interests of groups, parties and classes, we cannot actually expect that she can master such an overwhelming mass of information.Comparatists, though, should be trained with the aim of observing legal documents, i.e. constitutions, through a syncretic intellectual equipment - law is the destination but, to get there, more than law is required. Then, CCL should still be included in the family of legal scholarships, but comparatists could not restrain themselves to learn law only. This assumption implies that comparatists should be trained to develop, nurture, and enhance this broader latitude of analysis and the necessary range of cultural sensitivities: to understand constitutions as culture, law may be not sufficient and many times we already know it is not. Paraphrasing von Clausewitz’s well known aphorism, CCL is a continuation of law by (also) other means.
References
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4. Günther Frankenberg, Comparing Constitutions: Ideas, Ideals, and Ideology - Toward a Layered Narrative, 4 I-CON 439 (2006), at 441.
5. DANIEL BONILLA MALDONADO, Introduction, in CONSTITUTIONALISM OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH (2014), at 5.
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Review
For citations:
Barbisan B. COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: A CONTINUATION OF LAW BY OTHER MEANS (A FEW INCIPIENT THOUGHTS). Journal of Law and Administration. 2016;(4):43-48. (In Russ.)
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