Article by Vernon Valentine Palmer
An American's perspective on comparative law in his native land is bound to be somewhat less interesting than an American perspective on European developments. According to comparative law theory itself, the insider looking in is less perspicacious than the outsider looking out, and with good reason. My American legal culture would be a handicap to clear vision about American developments, but perhaps an American's lack of European baggage would be an asset in critiquing the European scene. According to the same theory, however, if I were to review the European scene, that supposedly would in turn lead me to see my own milieu, the American scene, more clearly and perhaps to comprehend it for the first time. Through defamiliarization, I could reduce the baggage in my own overhead compartment. Or, as Max Rheinstein wrote, “Comparative law in the proper sense means an observation of one's own law from outside, in order to evaluate it critically.”
Furthermore, if critical remarks are to be made, an insider, assuming he has undergone the necessary ablutions, does have one advantage. The outsider may wonder if he has all the facts or may naturally err on the side of being too polite, but an American has less hesitation in making candid criticisms about the state of the discipline in his own country, especially when his own work cannot escape those criticisms. This Article will probably reveal both the strengths and weaknesses of having an American perspective.
About the Author
Vernon Valentine Palmer. Thomas Pickles Professor of Law, Tulane University School of Law. B.A. Tulane University; L.L.B. Tulane University School of Law; LL.M. Yale Law School; D.Phil. Pembroke College, Oxford University.
Citation
75 Tul. L. Rev. 1093 (2001)