Uwe Kischel's comprehensive treatise on comparative law offers a critical introduction to the central tenets of comparative legal scholarship. The first part of the book is dedicated to general aspects of comparative law. The controversial question of methods, in particular, is addressed by explaining and discussing different approaches, and by developing a contextual approach that seeks to engage with real-world issues and takes a practical perspective on contemporary comparative legal scholarship. The second part of the book offers a detailed treatment of the major legal contexts across the globe, including common law, civil law systems (based on Germany and France, and extended to Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Latin America, among others), the African context (with an emphasis on customary law), different contexts in Asia, Islamic law and law in Islamic countries (plus a brief treatment of Jewish law and canon law), and transnational contexts (public international law, European Union law, and lex mercatoria). The book offers a coherent treatment of global legal systems that aims not only to describe their varying norms and legal institutions but to propose a better way of seeking to understand how the overall context of legal systems influences legal thinking and legal practice.

The International Academy of Comparative Law will hold its 18th International Congress of Comparative Law in Washington DC from 25 to 31 July 2010. About 30 different sections will discuss legal topics from all areas ranging from the interpretation of complex sources of law to foreign voters, issues of corporate governance and financial leases to surrogate motherhood, internet crimes, public private partnerships, climate change and the law and the balance of intellectual property. The numerous national reports on every single subject are based on questionnaires drafted by renowned experts acting as general reporters for the subject concerned. Most of the German national reports have been consolidated in this book and are made available to the public.

Das Skriptum behandelt den Stoff der Anf ngervorlesungen Grundrechte und Staatsorganisationsrecht an der Universit t Greifswald.