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2. Idem (1987), pp.36–37.

3. Idem, p.68.

4. Idem, p.69.

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12. Kötz, in his foreword to Kötz and Zweigert (1996), op. cit. supra n.1, at p.v, enthusiastically writes that, following the collapse of Soviet communism and the almost complete disappearance of the “socialist legal family” in the world, that edition could be reduced by 60 pages.Google Scholar

13. Cf. “on a whole host of issues English law is closer to French law than it is to German law (e.g. breach of contract, vicarious liability, transfer of property in corporeal movables) while on others (e.g. the need to balance free speech versus human privacy) English and German law may have much more in common in terms of shared values than English law has with the law in the United States”: Markesinis, B. S., Foreign Law & Comparative Methodology. A Subject and a Thesis (1997), p.13.Google Scholar

14. Notwithstanding the wording of, e.g., Art.5 of the Code Napolion of 1804, still in force in several European countries, according to which it is forbidden for judges to decide cases by formulating general rules (“Il est défendu aux juges de prononcer, par voie de disposition générale et réglementaire, sur les causes qui leur sont soumises”). As recently as 1967, in Belgium, this Art has, without any change, been transferred from the Civil Code to the new Code of Civil Procedure (where it became Art.6).

15. And this was the case before the common law countries (UK and Ireland) joined the EC in 1972.

16. Case C–415/93 Bosman [1995] E.G R. 1–4921.Google Scholar

17. For an interesting comparative overview, including the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Poland as European countries and Argentina and the US as non-European countries, see MacCormick, D. N. and Summers, R. S., Interpreting Statutes. A Comparative Study (1991).Google Scholar

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19. Cf. e.g. “When I started the learning of the Japanese legal system, it was taught by the teachers as received from Western countries”: Chiba, M., “Toward a Truly International Sociology of Law through the Study of the Legal Pluralism Existing in the World”, in Amaud, A.-J. (Ed.), Legal Culture and Everyday Life (1989), pp.129–136, at p.131.Google Scholar

20. A long-standing Asian influence led Russian (legal) culture to contain, till now, more characteristics of Asian (legal) culture than of the Western one. For concrete field research which shows this intermediate position of Russian legal culture, see Sanders, J. and Hamilton, V. L., “Legal Cultures and Punishment Repertoires in Japan, Russia, and the United States” (1992) Law & Society Rev. 117.Google Scholar

21. Two branches of this social law were developed: social security and labour law. Social security, instead of being a legally organised form of social solidarity, has been developed as a system of individual social insurance covering individual risks such as illness, unemptoyment etc. In labour law also the protection of individual interests of the worker dominates, not the collective of the group of workers.

22. Wieacker, F., “Grundlagen der Rechtskultur”, in Jörgensen, S. et al. (Eds), Tradition and Progress in Modern Legal Cultures (1985), pp.176–190, at p.182. Wieacker is distinguishing three mam characteristics of Western legal culture: personalism, legalism and intellectualism (idem, p.185). Actually, what he means by personalism is covered by the concept of individualism we are using, whereas legalism and intellectualism are clearly representing the characteristic we call rationalism.Google Scholar

23. New belief m the infinite possibilities of the human spirit to experience reality, to master and organise it, originally manifested in the Renaissance, then in the French philosophy of the 18th century, and also to some extent in German idealist philosophy (Hegel). The rapid increase of scientific, technical and industrial development in the following centuries is both an application and a result of this belief. The success of science, technology and industry has, in an inverse way, increased the belief in the value of the human mind, which in turn has also had an equal influence on science. This was not only in the positive sciences, but also m the human sciences as it resulted in the development of new disciplines such as econometrics and formal logic. As a reaction to all this, different forms of ideas came into being in which irrational elements played a large role, e.g. in phenomenology and hermeneutics, but they had only a limited influence on the Western culture.

24. Dekkers, R., “Meetkunde en verzoening” (1966–1967) Rechtskundig Weekblad 129.Google Scholar

25. The Japanese writer Noda characterises Western law as the “law of the geometric mind” and the opposite of the Japanese “Law of the subtle mind”: “The Far Eastern Concep-tion of Law” (1971) 2 Int Encyclopedia of Comp.L., 120.Google ScholarSee also Ch. Kim and C M. Lawson, “The Law of the Subtle Mind: The Traditional Japanese Conception of Law” (1979) 28 I.C.L.Q. 491.Google Scholar

26. For an example where this concept is applied, see Barclays Bank plc v. O'Brien [1993] 4 All ER. 417, 424a and b.Google Scholar

27. A s is well known, Hans Kelsen tried to develop a “Pure Theory of Law”, in which norms were strictly separated from facts and in which legal norms were strictly separated from moral, political or other non-legal norms. This explains why the Kelsenian theories are hardly known in most Asian legal cultures: from a non-rationalist point of view such theories are not only uninteresting, they cannot, or at least not really, be understood (Kaufmann, A., “Vergleichende Rechtsphilosophie—am Beispiel der klassischen chinestschen und der klassischen abendlandischen Rechtskultur”, in Pfister, B. and Will, M. R. (Eds), Festschrift für Werner Lorenz zum sleb zigsten Geburtstag (1991), pp.635–648, at p.642: “Die Reine Rechtslehre Keleens ist ihnen weitgehend unzugänglich”).Google Scholar

28. Kung Fu-Tzu, better known in the West as Confucius, lived in China from 551–479 B C Confucianism was imported into Japan and imposed on its people under the reign of the Tokogawa dynasty (1600–1867). This religion partly mixed with existing religions: Buddhism and Shinto, a pantheist religion of Japanese origin and strongly oriented towards nature. In China there was some influence from the movement, called Legalism, which placed more emphasis on the importance of rules, but had only a limited influence (see for a historical overview MacCormack, G. D., “Law and Punishment: The Western and the Tra-ditional Chinese Legal Mind”, in MacCormick, N. and Birks, P.(Eds), The Legal Mind (1986), pp.235–251).Google Scholar See, on the influence of Buddhism on the Chinese legal culture, Lee, L. T. and Lai, W. W., “The Chinese Conceptions of Law: Confucian, Legalist and Buddhist” (1978) 29 Hastings L.J. 1307.Google Scholar

29. J. Escarra gives the following examples: wearing warm clothes in summer or light clothes m winter could bring cold temperatures in summer and warm temperatures in winter. Executions can better be organised in autumn than in spring, because this fits better with the biological cyde: “La conception chmoise du droit” (1935) 1/2 Archives de Philosophie du Droit 11. See also Kim and Lawson, op. cit. supra n.25, at pp.493–494.Google Scholar

30. The Japanese do not bring proceedings easily. They do so only after having tried all other methods of dispute resolution without success: Taniguchi, Y., “Between Verhandlungsmaxime and Adversary System—in Search for Place of Japanese Civil Procedure”, in Gottwald, P. and Prütting, H. (Eds), Festschrift für Karl Heinz Schwab zum 70. Geburatag (1990), p.496.Google Scholar In fact, the highest ideal of a chün-tze (gentleman) is to show oneself capable of a sense of proportion and moderation in all circumstances. Compromise or yielding with propriety is always far more important in China than invoking personal rights and privileges: Lee and Lai, op. cit. supra n. 28, at p.1310.Google Scholar See on the weak position of the judiciary in Japan, and the importance of reconciliation, Oki, M., “Schlichtung als Institution des Rechts. Ein Vergleich von europˇischem und japanischem Rechtsdenken” (1985) 16 Rechtstheorie 151.Google Scholar

31. In traditional Korea a yangban (member of the ruling class) who was in mourning (which often lasted for a period of three years) was punished if he came personally to the court to institute a lawsuit, and his suit would not even be received (see Dai-Kwan Choi, “Western Law in a Traditional Society Korea” (1980) 8 Korean J.Comp.L. 177, 181–182).Google Scholar

32. Llompart, J., “Japanisches und Europaisches Rechtsdenken”(1985) 16 Rechtstheorie 131, 145.Google Scholar

33. see Miaille, M., Introduction critique à l'étude du droit (1976), pp.292et seq.Google Scholar

34. Rosen, L., “Equity and Discretion in a Modern Islamic Legal System” (1980–1981) 15 Law & Society Rev. 217, 223.Google Scholar

35. Idem, pp.227–228.

36. As Dekkers, R., Discoun Rectorauz (1970), p. 19, has noted: “The Bantu is not an individualist the European. What would be the fate of the individual in Africa, left to his own devices, without the support of the applied sciences or modern techniques? At the risk of dying, he has to be member of a group, his tribe, in order to defend himself against nature.”Google Scholar

37. “Disputes arising often have to be solved by some form of arbitration. The winner-take-all phenomenon gives way in Africa to a sort of give-a-little-get-a-little phenomenon”: Ojwang, J. B., “European Law in Africa: Wherefore?”, in Jörgensen et al., op. cit supra n.22, pp.141–147, at p.142.Google Scholar

38. “To violate the law of the land duly enacted or ‘consecrated’ is to incur human and supernatural disfavour. Ill-fortune, sickness or death could be the result of an unlawful act. All these traditional Africa views and beliefs make enforcement of a law all the more unnecessary”: Okafor, F. U., “Legal Positivism and the African Legal Tradition” (1984) International Philosophical Quarterly 157, 161.Google Scholar

39. Vanderlinden, J., “Aspects de la regie de droit dans I'Afrique traditionelle”, in Peretman, Ch. (Ed.), La règlede droit (1971), p. 141. See also Ojwang, loc cit. supra n.37, where he states that African law is marked by an exceptional appearance of informality, as compared e.g. with most European legal systems.Google Scholar

40. Watson, A., Legal Transplants. An Approach to Comparative Law (1974), p.5.Google Scholar

41. In order to avoid misunderstandings, it should be emphasised that the use of the concept of legal anthropology has nothing to do with some Western ethnocentricity. It simply points to the fact that a broad sociological comparison has to be the first step in any such comparison, and that societies, traditions, work) views have to be compared and not legal rules, concepts, institutions, isolated from this broad anthropological context.

42. Northrop, , op. cit. supra n.5, at pp.657–658.Google Scholar

43. Kamba, , op. cit. supra n.5, at p.511.Google Scholar

44. Ibid.

45. Ibid.

46. E.g. in the Congo many Belgian statutes and codes have been kept after independence in 1960. Even today courts, including the supreme court (Cour de cassation) are constantly referring to Belgian court decisions and Belgian legal doctrine when deciding cases. However, this does not mean that legal reality or everyday legal and social practice would be identical, or even very similar to Belgian legal daily life.

47. For acriticism of the Western character of the concept of human rights from an Indian point of view, see Panikkar, R., “Is the Notion of Human Rights a Western Concept?” (1982) 120 Diogenes 75.Google Scholar

48. Saleilles, R., “Conception et objet de la science juridique du droit comparé””, in Procèsverbaux et documents du Congrès international de droit comparé (Paris 1900), 2 vols. (1905–1907), Vol.1, p.173.Google ScholarSee also David, R., Le droit comparé Droits d'hier, droits de demain (1982), p.12Google Scholar; Constantinesco, L.-J., Traité de droit comparé, Vol 1: Introduction au droit comparé (1972), p. 135.Google Scholar

49. After a “metaphysical natural law” and, from the 17th century onwards, a “rational natural law” this approach could be considered to be an attempt to strive towards a form of “empirical natural law”, influenced by the success of the (empirical approach of the) positive sciences in the 19th century.

50. For a criticism of the possibility of universal rights in a culturally divided world, see Belvisi, F., “Rights, World-Society and the Crisis of Legal Universalism” (1996) Ratio Juris 60.Google Scholar

51. Mitsukuni Yasaki, “Legal Culture in Japan, Modem—Traditional”, in Jörgensen et al., op. cit. supra n. 22, pp.191–195, at p.191.Google Scholar

52. Which is the definition of “legal culture” provided by John Bell and quoted supra text accompanying n.11.

53. Kuhn, T. S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (2nd edn, 1970).Google Scholar

54. Note that the Copernican theory is already incorporated in our language, as we talk of a “solar” system rather than of a “planetary” system, and we do not use the expression “earth system”.

55. Within legal theory some attention has been paid to the concept of paradigm, albeit roughly limited to the question of the historical development of legal science and the question to what extent legal science has been faced with scientific revolutions. See e.g. Aarnio, A. et al. , Paradigms, Change and Progress in Legal Dogmatics (1983)Google Scholar; Aarnio, A., “On the Paradigm Articulation in Legal Research”Google Scholar, in Tarnmelo, I. and Aarnio, A., Zum Fortschrist von Theorie und Technik in Recht und Ethik (1981), pp.45–56Google Scholar; Wroblewski, J., “Paradigm of Legal Dogmatics and the Legal Sciences”, in Ziembinski, Z. (Ed.), Polish Contributions to the Theory and Philosophy of Law (1987), pp.75–88Google Scholar; A. Peczenik, The Basis of Legal Justification (1983), pp.129–134Google Scholar; Zuleta, E. Puceiro, Paradigma dogmarico y ciencia del derecho (1981).Google ScholarFlodin, M., “The Possibility of Revolution in Legal Science”, in Bankowski, Z. (Ed.), Revolutions in Law and Legal Thought (1991), pp.175–182Google Scholar; J. Uusitalo, “Legal Dogmatics and the Concept of a Scientific Revolution”, in Bankowski, idem, pp.113–121; Jori, M., “Paradigms of Legal Science” (1990) Rivista Intemazionale di Filosofia del Diritto 230Google Scholar. Specifically on the historical development of science, from the point of view of paradigm, see Krawietz, W., “Zum Paradigmenwechsel im juristischen Methodenstreit”, in Krawietz, W. et al. , Argumentation und Hermenevtik in der Jurisprudent (1979), pp.113–152Google Scholar; Simmonds, N. E., “Law as a Rational Science” (1980) Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie 535.Google Scholar See also Jakobs, H. H., Wissenschaft und Gesetzgebung im bürgeruchen Recht (1983).Google Scholar

56. Markesinis, B. S., “A Matter of Style” (1994) 110 L.Q.R. 607, 610, n.22.Google Scholar

57. In three decisions: 19 Jan. 1989 (1989) 106 B.G.H Z (Entscheidungen des Bundesgerichtshofs in Zivilsachen);28 Feb. 1989(1990) 107 B.G.H.Z. 92; 16 Mar. 1989 (Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht, 1989, p.626). It is interesting to note that in all three cases the lowest courts, three different Landgerichte, decided in the same way as the Bundesgerichtsh of but the three courts of appeal (Oberlandesgerichte) decided in the opposite way.Google Scholar

58. BVerfG 19 10 1993 (1994) 89 B.Verf.G.E. (Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts) 214, 234.Google Scholar

59. Tumbull & Co. v. Duval [1902] A. C 429 (PC).Google Scholar

60. Scott LJ in Barclays Bank plc v. O'Brien [1992] 4 All E.R., 983, 993eGoogle Scholar (see also the summary in the decision of the House of Lords, supra n.26, at pp.421j–422bGoogle Scholar).

61. Lord Browne-Wilkinson in idem [1993], pp.431j–432a.

62. Examples of such strongly morally laden, unwritten general principles of law accepted by courts in many European countries are: the good faith principle, or the prohibition of abuse of law (see Van Hoecke, M., “The Use of Unwritten Legal Principles by Courts”, (1995) Ratio Juris 248).Google Scholar

63. “This appeal.… raises yet again a problem that has been before the Court of Appeal on a number of occasions over the past ten years or so” (Scott LJ in Barclays Bank plc v. O'Brien, supra n.60, at p.986Google Scholar). “For some ten years the civil courts have had to deal more and more with cases in which young adults end up in a situation of high debts with no way of repaying them, because they have stood as a security for high bank loans for their partner or parents, although they had only a low income.” (“Seit etwa zehn Jahren werden die Zivilgerichte zunehmend mit Fällen befasst, in denen junge Erwachsene in auswegkne Überschuldung geraten and, weil sie für hohe Bankkredite ihrer Partner Oder Eltern gebürgt hatten, obwohl sie nur über geringfügige Einküfte verfügten”) (Bundesverfassungsgericht 19 10. 1993 (1994) 89 B.Verf.G.E., 215).Google Scholar

64. Hart, H. L. A., The Concept of Law (1961), pp.77–96.Google Scholar

65. Kahn-Freund, O., “Introduction”, in Renner, K., The Institutions of Private Law and their Social Functions (1949), p.10.Google Scholar

66. As e.g. the Kapauku tribe in Papua did, as recorded by Leopold Pospisil, Anthropology of Law. A Comparative Theory (1971), pp.274–302, with a diagram at p.295.Google Scholar

67. The recent House of Lords decision in White v. Jones [1995] 2 W.L.R. 187Google Scholar provides evidence of the increasing tendency of certain judges to refer to academic doctrine (see esp. Lord Goff at pp.202–203Google Scholar). This is in marked contrast to the traditional position, no doubt still shared by some English judges, where “It is to my mind much to be regretted, and it is a regret which I believe that every judge on the bench shares, that text books are more and more quoted in court”: Union Bank v. Münster (1887) 37 L.R.Ch. 51, 54 (per Kekewich J).Google Scholar

68. This, of course, does not mean that there once necessarily will be a “European Civil Code” or an “African Civil Code”, etc. Today, much more emphasis is laid on other, more modest approaches. E.g. Walter van Gerven puts forward his vision of such a long-term approach: making use of multinational casebooks as one important element in the creation of a common law of Europe. See generally “The Case Law of the European Court of Justice and National Courts as a Contribution to the Europeanisation of Private Law” (1995) 3 European Review of Private Law 367.Google Scholar

69. Jean Bodin defined “souveraineté as”la puissance absolue aperpéuelle d'une République” (the absolute and eternal power of a republic): De la République (1583), Book I, chap. VIII, p.122.Google Scholar

70. E.g. see Arts.85 and 86 of the EC Treaty and the following Council Directives: 93/13/EEC on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts (1993) O.J. L95/29Google Scholar; 94/47/EEC on Right to Use Immovable Property on a Timeshare Basis(1994) O.J. L280Google Scholar; 90/314/EEC on Package Travel, Package Holidays, and Package Tours (1990) O.J. L158/59.Google Scholar

71. European Court of Human Rights, 13 June 1979.

72. Other examples of important decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the field of family law, all to be found in the Recueil des Arréts et Décisions de la Cour européenne des droits de I'homme, Series A, are: Johnston v. Ireland, No. 112 (divorce); F. v. Switzerland, No. 128 (right to remarry); Olsson v. Sweden, No. 130 (family separation); Eriksson v. Sweden, No. 156 (placement in a guest family and right to visit).

73. Case 152/84 Marshall v. South Hants AHA [1986] E.C.R. 732Google Scholar; Case 188/89 Foster v. British Gas plc [1990] 3 All E.R. 897.Google Scholar

74. Bell, J., “The English Lawyer in the Europe of 1993” (1992) 34 U. Leeds Rev. 181, 182–184Google Scholar, and op. cit. supra n.6, at pp.73–74.Google Scholar

75. See, for Belgian law, A. Van Mensel, “L'attitude des juges beiges face au divorce par repudiation” (1990) Revue du droit des étrangers 176.Google Scholar

76. see Aamio, A., Philosophical Perspectives in Jurisprudence (1983), pp.163–184Google Scholar; see also Aarnio, A., Denkweisen der Rechawissenschafi (1979), pp.49–50, where he defines legal doctrine as “the science of meanings”.Google Scholar

77. For some examples of the influence of the “floodgate factor” in English common law, see Bell, J., Policy Arguments in Judicial Decisions (1983), pp.70–71 and 217–218.Google Scholar

78. [1972] 3 W.L.R. 502.Google Scholar

79. [1991] 1 A. C 398.Google Scholar

80. “If claims for economic loss were permitted for this particular hazard, there would be no end of claims. Some might be genuine, but many might be inflated or even false” (Lord Denning in Spartan Steel & Alloys Ltd v. Martin & Co. (Contractors) Ltd [1973] 1 Q.B. 27).Google Scholar

81. But not only in the English legal system. The same argument plays a similar role in the area of pure economic loss in the Netherlands (see Kottenhagen, R. J. P., “Buiten-contractuele aansprakelijkheid voor economische schade. Een rechtsvergelijkende studie naar aanleiding van recente ontwikkelingen in net Engelse (bouw-)recht omtrent de mogelijkheden tot vergoeding van economic loss claims” (1991) Bouwrecht 339)Google Scholar, and in Austria (see Posch, W., “Der ungeschutzte Strombezieher als Fall des mittelbaren Schadens in der Rechtsprediung des OGH” (1973) Juristische Blätter 564Google Scholar; decision of the Oberste Gerichtshof, Z. V.R. 1979, p.93), but not at all in Belgium, France or Germany. Again the difference is not between common law and civil law, but appears to follow unexpected geographical lines.Google Scholar

82. Aulis, Aarnio (1983), op. cit. supra n.76, at p.216, defines a legal doctrinal theory as “a set of concepts and propositions which systematize legal norms in a certain way”.Google Scholar

83. See, on the problem of a common language in comparative law, Van Hoecke, M., “Honield and Comparative Law” (1996) 9 Int J. for the Semiotics of Law 185, esp. 188–201.Google Scholar

84. Samuel, , op. cit supra n.7, at p.84Google Scholar, with reference to Blanché, R., L 'épistémologie (3rd edn, 1983), pp.64–65.Google Scholar

85. Collins, H., “Methods and Aims of Comparative Contract Law” (1991) 11 Oxford J. Legal Studies 396, 397.Google Scholar See for some other examples of foreign influences on English law Bingham, T. H., “There is a World Elsewhere: The Changing Perspectives of English Law” (1992) 41 I.C.L.Q. 513, 522–528.Google Scholar

86. See Council Directive 93/13/EEC, Art.3(1).

87. Collins, H., “Good Faith in European Contract Law” (1994) 14 Oxford J. Legal Studies 229.Google Scholar

88. Supra n.1.

89. This is what the Japanese sociologist of law and comparatist Masaji Chiba has called the “identity postulate” of a legal culture: “The Identity Postulate of a Legal Culture”, in Archiv für Rechu-und Sozialphilosophie, Beiheft Nr.30 (1988).