Family feud or family reunion? Comparative Law and Comparative Legal History as siblings
15 October 2026 – 12:00-13:00hs (CEST)
Comparative Legal History will host an online session, with speakers Prof. Thomas Duve (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory), Prof. Ralf Michaels (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law), and Prof. Jaakko Husa (University of Helsinki), to discuss the state of the relationship between the fields of comparative law and comparative legal history.
Comparative law and comparative legal history clearly share a close intellectual kinship. In the nineteenth century, when comparative law emerged as an autonomous discipline, comparative lawyers often showed a great interest in legal history. However, after many decades of differentiation and specialization within legal studies, it is both possible and fruitful to reassess the relationship between these two fields. Do comparatists still engage with comparative legal history? Do these two forms of scholarship continue to share methodological tools and theoretical assumptions? Are comparative legal historians interested in providing information, perspectives, or solutions for questions arising within comparative law? These are only some of the questions that emerge when reflecting on the connections between comparative law and
comparative legal history.
After brief contributions by our invited speakers, attendees will be invited to join in a general discussion. The event (on Zoom) is free and open to the public; registration is by email to clhdialogues@gmail.com.
Comparative Legal History is the scholarly journal of the European Society for Comparative Legal History, publishing innovative research in comparative, transnational, and global legal history. The journal welcomes contributions that examine and compare historical interactions between diverse forms of normativity, including legal, religious, customary, and social norms, as well as the agents, institutions, and jurisdictions through which they have operated. Engaging with legal traditions from across the globe, the journal welcomes interdisciplinary approaches and publishes research articles, invited contributions, review essays, book reviews, and special issues.
