What does it mean when civil lawyers and common lawyers think differently? In Charting the Divide between Common and Civil Law, Thomas Lundmark provides a comprehensive introduction to the uses, purposes, and approaches to studying civil and common law in a comparative legal framework. Superbly organized and exhaustively written, this volume covers the jurisdictions of Germany, Sweden, England and Wales, and the United States, and includes a discussion of each country's legal issues, structure, and their general rules. Professor Lundmark also explores the discipline of comparative legal studies, rectifying many of the misconceptions and prejudices that cloud our understanding of the divide between the common law and civil law traditions. Students of international law, comparative law, social philosophy, and legal theory will find this volume a valuable introduction to common and civil law. Lawyers, judges, political scientists, historians, and philosophers will also find this book valuable as a source of reference. Charting the Divide between Common and Civil Law equips readers with the background and tools to think critically about different legal systems and evaluate their future direction.

About the Author
Thomas Lundmark studied comparative literature in Uppsala and San Diego before embarking upon the study of law in Berkeley, Freiburg (Fulbright Scholar), and Bonn (Dr jur). After working as a lawyer in California, he served three consecutive years as a Fulbright Senior Professor in Bonn and Rostock before being appointed in 1997 to the Chair of Common Law and Comparative Legal Theory at the University of Munster, where he lectures on comparative law, jurisprudence, and legal methodology. Professor Lundmark has published and lectured widely in German and English.

Reviews
Thomas Lundmark rightly challenges taxonomic and static appreciation of 'legal families' in the world and does so in the most effective manner, through detailed and informed appreciation of the institutions of specific jurisdictions... The treatment is erudite and cosmopolitan, the conclusions irresistible. It is a splendid book. * H. Patrick Glenn, Peter M. Laing Professor of Law, McGill University *
Thomas Lundmark explains what makes legal systems unique and questions the value of the conventional distinction between 'civil law' and 'common law' systems. He illustrates this through an impressive survey of scholarship, particularly on Germany and the USA, as well as England and Wales and Sweden. He offers a sophisticated picture of legal reasoning that includes the structure of language and jurisprudential traditions, professions, and the interpretation of statues and precedents. He demonstrates convincingly that such a picture reveals the individuality of legal systems and the need to avoid traditional stereotypes in the classification of legal families. * John Bell, Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, UK *
This book is different! It is not about comparison at the level of specific doctrines of private law such as contract or tort law. Instead, it reaches out to the structural level and touches the very core of the different approaches that we can discern between Common Law and Civil Law. Lundmark's book offers new and fascinating deeper insights even to a reader who has been engaged in comparative law from an academic as well as from a practical aspect for decades. * Professor Dr. Ingeborg Schwenzer, LL.M., Basel, Switzerland *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199738823
Author Thomas Lundmark
Format Hardback
Page Count 496
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 814g
Dimensions(mm) 163mm * 236mm * 33mm