Legal Theory and the Use of Comparative Research

Abstract

The idea behind the paper is that legal theory and comparative law studies have a potential to complement each other with their findings, despite different methodology and manner of formulating theorems. It is particularly important that “comparative awareness” is present in the legal theory practice. The awareness can serve as a foundation for research as well as a perspective for allocation of its results. The above ascertainment is applicable to numerous legal theory subject-matters such as divergent normative institutions, law-making and law enforcement, rules of legal interpretation, legal system ingredients and legal cultures. Therefore, there is a need for creation of a new research programme, the agenda of which would involve inter alia a shift from the foreign law studies to comparative law studies, or provision of methodology applicable to comparative law studies so that scholars and academics could combine specific comparative law studies and generalization of the results of research, which is a characteristic feature of legal theory. The programme could bring about the following benefits for legal studies: “depositivisation” of legal theory and philosophy of law, strengthening of a critical base and universalisation of the legal theory theorems.