Why do judges study legal sources which originated outside their own national legal system, and how do they use arguments from these sources in deciding domestic cases? Based on interviews with judges, this book presents the inside story of how judges engage with international and comparative law in the highest courts of the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, France and the Netherlands. A comparative analysis of the views and experiences of the judges clarifies how the decision-making of these Western courts has developed in light of the internationalisation of law and the increased opportunities for transnational judicial communication. While the qualitative analysis reveals the motives which judges claim for using foreign law and the influence of 'globalist' and 'localist' approaches to judging, the author also finds suggestions of a convergence of practices between the courts which are the subject of this study. This empirical analysis is complemented by a constitutional-theoretical inquiry into the procedural and substantive factors of legal evolution, which enable or constrain the development and possible convergence of highest courts' practices. The two strands of the analysis are connected in a final contextual reflection on the future development of the role of Western highest courts.

Foundations of Public Contracts undertakes an in-depth survey of the foundations of public contracts in three legal systems: American, French, and Brazilian. The comparison of these three systems highlights the legal phenomenon's historical, philosophical, and social origins. The book transcends the functional commonalities to penetrate into how American, French, and Brazilian lawyers think about the essence of government contracts law, the phenomenon of exceptionalism: preferential treatment that public procurement law provides to the state in its contractual dealing with private entities. Comparative public law professors and students will find great value in this exploration of the material sources of public contracts, an area that has heretofore received little attention in legal academia.