Legal Culture

The Lawyer Quarterly, 2016

One of the “pivotal” terms, showing the diversity of phenomena related to the cultural embedding of law is that of legal culture. It is used to describe the diversity of approaches to law as well as of the opinions on how this term is understood, on the role of social order, the practice of law application. The article deals with differences in the research approaches of various jurisprudential disciplines. Among the many topics covered in the article, the authors emphasize in particular the differences between the concept of “legal culture” in the textbooks of the history of law and social sciences, opposing legal history approach by that of legal sociology or philosophy of law. Striking in the attitude to the history of the numerous concepts of legal culture is the treatment of the historical phenomena not as an objective social, economic, or political reality, but as a certain intellectual construct that aims to “complete and justify the concept”. This is a purely instrumental ap...

Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law, 2023

Scholars in comparative law do not usually confine their comparisons to legal norms but also consider the respective historical, political, socio-economic, and cultural contexts in which these norms emerge, take shape, and apply. Considering (and comparing) legal cultures is one way to take this context into account. But what exactly does legal culture mean, and how can comparatists use it? This article attempts to clarify this somewhat fuzzy concept and elaborates which scholarly purposes it may serve.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2010

Journal of Civil Law Studies, 2010

Part of the Civil Law Commons This Civil Law Workshop is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Civil Law Studies by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact

, 2014

DISCIPLINARY ISSUES LAW AS CULTURE? [2002] 9–14 // TRENDS IN COMPARATIVE LEGAL STUDIES [2002] 15–17 // COMPARATIVE LEGAL CULTURES: ATTEMPTS AT CONCEPTUALISATION [1997] 19–28: 1. Legal Culture in a Cultural-anthropological Approach 19 / 2. Legal Culture in a Sociological Approach 21 / 3. Timely Issues of Central and Eastern Europe 24 // COMPARATIVE LEGAL CULTURES? [2001] 29–48: 1. Legal Comparativism Challenged 29 / 2. Comparative Legal Cultures versus Comparative Law 34 / 3. Contrasting Fields 40 [a) The Historical Understanding of Socialist Law 42 / b) Convergence of Civil Law and Common Law 44] 4. Concluding Remarks 46 // THEATRUM LEGALE MUNDI: ON LEGAL SYSTEMS CLASSIFIED [2005] 49–75: 1. Preliminaries 49 / 2. Proposals 50 / 3. Impossible Taxonomy, or the Moment of Practicality in Legal Mapping 69 / 4. Diversity as a Fundamental Quality of Human Existence 74 // LEGAL TRADITIONS? IN SEARCH FOR FAMILIES AND CULTURES IN LAW [2004] 77–97: 1. Comparative Law and the Comparative Study of Legal Traditions 78 / 2. ‘System’, ‘Family’, ‘Culture’, and ‘Tradition’ in the Classification of Law 80 / 3. Different Traditions, Differing Ways of Thinking 85 / 4. Different Expectations, Differings Institutionalisations in Law 88 / 5. Different “Rationalities”, Differing “Logics” 92 / 6. Mentality in Foundation of the Law 94 / 7. Defining a Subject for Theoretical Research in Law 96 // SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING OLD IN THE EUROPEAN IDENTITY OF LAW? [1995] 99–102 FIELD STUDIES MEETING POINTS BETWEEN THE TRADITIONS OF ENGLISH–AMERICAN COMMON LAW AND CONTINENTAL-FRENCH CIVIL LAW: DEVELOPMENTS AND EXPERIENCE OF POSTMODERNITY IN CANADA [2002] 105–130: I. Canadian Law in General 105 / II. Canadian Legal Developments in Particular [1. The Transformation of the Role of Precedents 112 / 2. The Transformation of Law-application into a Collective, Multicultural and Multifactorial Search for a Solution 116 / 3. Practical Trends of Dissolving the Law’s Positivity 120 / 4. New Prerogatives Acquired by Courts 125 {a) Unfolding the Statutory Provisons in Principles 126 / b) Constitutionalisation of Issues 127 / c) The Supreme Court as the Nation’s Supreme Moral Authority 129}] // MAN ELEVATING HIMSELF? DILEMMAS OF RATIONALITY IN OUR AGE [2000] 131–163: I. Reason and its Adventures 1. Progress and Advance Questioned 131 / 2. The Human Search for Safety Objectified 133 / 3. Knowledge Separated from Wisdom 135 / 4. Pure Intellectuality thereby Born 137 / II. The Will-Element Formalised in Law 5. Mere Voluntas in the Foundation of Legal Positivism 141 / 6. Formalism with Operations Fragmented 145 / III. The State of America Exemplified 7. “Slouching into Gomorrah” 147 / IV. Consequences 8. Utopianism-cum-Voluntarism 154 / 9. With Logic in Posterior Control of Human Formulations Only 159 / V. Perspectives 10. And a Final Resolution Dreamed about 161 // RULE OF LAW? MANIA OF LAW? ON THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN RATIONALITY AND ANARCHY IN AMERICA [2002] 165–180: {Transformation of American Law and Legal Mentality 165 / With Repercussions on the Underlying Ethos 168 / Legislation through Processualisation 170 / With Hyperrationalism Added 172 / Example: Finding Lost Property 172 / Practicalness Veiled by Verbal Magic 173 / Ending in Jurispathy 175 / Transubstantiating the Self-interest of the Legal Profession 178 / Post-modernity, Substituting for Primitiveness 178} // TRANSFERS OF LAW: A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS [2003] 181–207: 1. Terms 182 / 2. Technicality 190 / 3. Contrasts in Transfers of Law 200 {Contrasts 200 / Criticisms 202 / Alternatives205} 4. Conclusions 206 // THE DANGERS FOR THE SELF OF BEING SELF-CENTRED: ON STANDARDS AND VALUES [2002] 209–212 APPENDIX THEORY OF LAW – LEGAL ETHNOGRAPHY, OR THE THEORETICAL FRUITS OF THE INQUIRIES INTO FOLKWAYS [2008] 213–234 1. Encounters 213 / 2. Disciplines 218 / 3. The Lawyerly Interest 223 / 4. Law and/or Laws 226 / 5. Conclusion 233 Index of Subjects 235 / Index of Normative Materials 242 / Index 244

2015

"Når Seneca kan forekomme mere samtidig end taenkere der er os meget naermere i tid, haenger det naturligvis sammen med at det moderne Europa har mere til faelles med storbyen Rom end med det før-industrielle Europas mindre, og mere lukkede samfund. Rom med sin kvantitetsdyrkelse, sin mangel på faelles åndelige vaerdier, sin rigdom og sit armod, sin livsnydelse og sin livslede, sit behov for underholdning og for frelse, sin individualisme og sin massepsykose, er det store fortilfaelde for vor egen storbycivilisation." (Villy Sørensen 1976 & 1995) 2 3 This indicates the fact that culture is not given but is a concrete result of human work and effort,

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2018

Alternative Law Journal, 2016

in Feelings of Justice in the Chinese community of Macao, ed. A. Hespanha: 27-49, Instituto de Ciências Sociais e Fundação Oriente, Lisboa., 2003