Contemporary Theories in Comparative Civil Law

Comparative law, as a means of expanding knowledge, helps to understand and measure analogies and differences among alternative legal rules or institutions. And it played a critical role in forming a native legal system. In addition, as economic globalization expands, comparative law has gained so much importance, especially for the legal harmonization or legal diffusion. In this regard, theories underlying comparative legal scholarship in the modern western world may contribute the development and diffusion of the Korean Civil Code. Of course, however, it may be too early to conclude that these western theories will contribute the development and diffusion of the Korean Civil Code in the future. In addition, it is essential to critically examine how they can do in a specific way. In other words, we need to analyze, evaluate, and restructure them in the context of the Korean Civil Code. Nevertheless, as a prerequisite for critical examination, it seems necessary for us to pay quite close attention to the modern theories of comparative law. With this in mind, as the first step of this mission, this article intends to introduce three important contemporary theories in a comparative vein that have been developed in western world and look briefly at these relevant communities of knowledge: “theory of legal transplants,” “law and development,” and “comparative law and economics.” It also seeks some implications of them for future research.