Comparative law is an effective tool of political struggle – a source of authority for some positions as well as a basis of resistance for others – although not always perceived this way. Its particularities across the domains where it is practiced transcend differences of method. They involve different images of comparative law itself, specific distributive stakes, and particular understandings often reproducing hierarchies between the Global North and the Global South, Western and Asian values, modernity and tradition. As such, an apt description of comparative law’s many varieties may be best captured by the reference to comparative comparative law. That is, varieties of legal comparatives in different arenas – and not simply a unified transnational field – better signifies its multiple valences and uses in different political economies. This conference is dedicated to exploring those multiple forms of comparative law that appear as neutral techniques across various sites of contestation.
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