Comparative Law in Perspective

The use and study of comparative law has grown in scope and in importance—and no more so than in the area of commercial exchange between the United States and Japan. Comparative law is being applied more practically in the Courts; it is an agent of change and of harmonization between different peoples and economies. However, the respective concepts of law and its role in society, as well as the role of language in understanding the law, continue to make the use and study of comparative law a challenge. A real sensitivity to the cultural, structural and conceptual differences in the civil and common law systems requires an understanding of these problems.