This book discusses a number of important themes in comparative law: legal metaphors and methodology, the movements of legal ideas and institutions and the mixity they produce, and marriage, an area of law in which culture - or clashes of legal and public cultures - may be particularly evident. In a mix of methodological and empirical investigations divided by these themes, the work offers expanded analyses and a unique cross-section of materials that is on the cutting edge of comparative law scholarship. It presents an innovative approach to legal pluralism, the study of mixed jurisdictions, and language and the law, with the use of metaphors not as an illustration but as a core element of comparative methodology.

While Irish historical writing has long been in thrall to the perceived sectarian character of the legal system, this collection is the first to concentrate attention on the actual relationship that existed between the Irish population and the state under which they lived from the War of the Two Kings (1689-1691) to the Great Famine (1845-1849). Particular attention is paid to an understanding of the legal character of the state and the reach of the rule of law, with contributors addressing such themes as: how law was made and put into effect; how ordinary people experienced the law and social regulations; how Catholics related to the legal institutions of the Protestant confessional state; and how popular notions of legitimacy were developed. These themes contribute to a wider understanding of the nature of the state in the long eighteenth century and will therefore help to situate the study of Irish society into the mainstream of English and European social history.

Debates surrounding the concept of law are not new. For a wide variety of reasons and in a wide variety of ways, the meaning of 'law' has long been an important part of Western thought, both within legal scholarship and beyond. The contributors to Concepts of Law are international experts from the fields of comparative law, legal philosophy, and the social sciences. Combining theoretical analyses with case studies, they explore various legal concepts and contexts from diverse national and disciplinary perspectives. Legal and normative pluralism is a theme throughout. Some chapters discuss the development of state law and legal systems. Others wrestle with law's rhetoric and the potential utility of alternative vocabularies, e.g., 'governance' and 'governmentality'. Others reveal the rich polyjurality of the present, from the local to the global. The result is a rich picture of both present scholarship on laws and norms and the state of contemporary legal complexity, each crossing traditional boundaries.

Debates surrounding the concept of law are not new. For a wide variety of reasons and in a wide variety of ways, the meaning of 'law' has long been an important part of Western thought, both within legal scholarship and beyond. The contributors to Concepts of Law are international experts from the fields of comparative law, legal philosophy, and the social sciences. Combining theoretical analyses with case studies, they explore various legal concepts and contexts from diverse national and disciplinary perspectives. Legal and normative pluralism is a theme throughout. Some chapters discuss the development of state law and legal systems. Others wrestle with law's rhetoric and the potential utility of alternative vocabularies, e.g., 'governance' and 'governmentality'. Others reveal the rich polyjurality of the present, from the local to the global. The result is a rich picture of both present scholarship on laws and norms and the state of contemporary legal complexity, each crossing traditional boundaries.

This book discusses a number of important themes in comparative law: legal metaphors and methodology, the movements of legal ideas and institutions and the mixity they produce, and marriage, an area of law in which culture - or clashes of legal and public cultures - may be particularly evident. In a mix of methodological and empirical investigations divided by these themes, the work offers expanded analyses and a unique cross-section of materials that is on the cutting edge of comparative law scholarship. It presents an innovative approach to legal pluralism, the study of mixed jurisdictions, and language and the law, with the use of metaphors not as an illustration but as a core element of comparative methodology.