International Law & Justice

(Presentation of Law as the Project for all Nations, Lands and Times) introduces the
idea of classifying Legal Systems into several families. Noteworthy, a few years earlier,
Leibnitz introduced an idea of Language families.
Although every Legal System is unique, Comparative Law through studies of their
similarities and differences allows for classification of Legal Systems, wherein Law
Families is the basic level of the classification. The main differences between Law
Families are found in the source(s) of Law, the role of court precedents, the origin and
development of the Legal System. Montesquieu is generally regarded as an early
founding figure of comparative law. His comparative approach is obvious in the
following excerpt from Chapter III of Book I of his masterpiece, De l'esprit des lois
(1748; first translated by Thomas Nugent, 1750):
[T]he political and civil laws of each nation ... should be adapted in such a manner to the
people for whom they are framed that it should be a great chance if those of one nation
suit another.
They should be in relation to the nature and principle of each government: whether they
form it, as may be said of politic laws; or whether they support it, as in the case of civil
institutions.
They should be in relation to the climate of each country, to the quality of its soil, to its
situation and extent, to the principal occupation of the natives, whether husbandmen,
huntsmen, or shepherds: they should have relation to the degree of liberty which the
constitution will bear; to the religion of the inhabitants, to their inclinations, riches,
numbers, commerce, manners, and customs.
Also, in Chapter XI (entitled 'How to compare two different Systems of Laws') of Book
XXIX, discussing the French and English systems for punishment of false witnesses, he
advises that "to determine which of those systems is most agreeable to reason, we
must take them each as a whole and compare them in their entirety." Yet another place
where Montesquieu's comparative approach is evident is the following, from Chapter
XIII of Book XXIX:
As the civil laws depend on the political institutions, because they are made for the
same society, whenever there is a design of adopting the civil law of another nation, it
would be proper to examine beforehand whether they have both the same institutions
and the same political law.
The modern founding figure of comparative and anthropological jurisprudence was Sir
Henry Maine, a British jurist and legal historian. In his 1861 work Ancient Law: Its
Connection with the Early History of Society, and Its Relation to Modern Ideas, he set
out his views on the development of legal institutions in primitive societies and engaged
in a comparative discussion of Eastern and Western legal traditions. This work placed
comparative law in its historical context and was widely read and influential.
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