Abstract:
This essay surveys recent themes and trends in comparative law scholarship, with a particular eye towards the connections between comparative law and legal history. The author observes a significant movement towards encyclopaedisation, marked by a proliferation of handbooks and encyclopaedias that attempt to systematise knowledge, though these works often struggle with comprehensiveness and persistent Eurocentrism. While traditional treatises continue to show fealty to established functionalist models, there is an observable shift away from the historical dominance of private law towards holistic, post-doctrinal, and interdisciplinary approaches. A primary concern raised is the ‘turn to method’, where the discipline has become increasingly self-absorbed with methodological pluralism and theory, sometimes resulting in ‘method without comparison’. Furthermore, the survey highlights the vital emergence of decolonial and postcolonial scholarship originating from the Global South, facilitating South-South comparison and challenging the field's colonial and Eurocentric foundations. Finally, the author examines the uneasy relationship between comparative law and legal history, questioning whether the discipline can move beyond viewing legal systems as separate entities towards a more integrated world law approach.
Of particular interest to readers of this blog is the essay's final section, "The Place of History", in which Michaels critically examines the uneasy relationship between comparative law and legal history – and the extent to which the latter remains underutilized in the former. Central to this discussion is Heikki Pihlajamäki's proposal to merge the two disciplines, which Michaels engages with directly and which will be further explored at the journal's online Dialogues event this October.
The piece has already sparked an online debate, with Jaakko Husa commenting on his social media (@husajaakko.bsky.social) that «Ralf Michaels has written an interesting, highly learned, and slightly provocative overall take on comparative law. He offers lots of food for thought even if one would disagree. Personally I admit enjoying greatly to be characterised as "the ironic pragmatist"».
To read the article in open access, please click here.
DOI: 10.1080/2049677X.2026.2671591
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