The American Journal of Comparative Law

About the Journal

The American Journal of Comparative Law was founded in 1952. As the official journal of the American Society of Comparative Law, it publishes four issues a year and is devoted to comparative and transnational legal studies – including, among other subjects, comparative law, comparative and transnational legal history and theory, private international law and conflict of laws, and the study of legal systems, cultures, and traditions other than those of the US.

In its long and rich history, The AJCL has published articles authored by scholars representing all continents, regions, and legal cultures of the world. A peer-reviewed, leading journal in the field, it has been hosted in the past by institutions such as the UC Berkeley School of Law, Columbia Law School and the University of Michigan Law School; currently, the Georgetown University Law Center and the McGill University Faculty of Law jointly serve as its host.

From our latest issue

Volume 70, Issue 2, June 2022

Articles

  • Deciding Between Contradicting Norms: Rights-Based Law vs. Duty-Based Law and Their Social Ramifications

    Pages 399-423, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac037

    The concept of rights stands at the very center of our legal universe. An imaginary alternative legal universe might have similar legal norms to ours, except that they are centered on the concept of duty. 

  • Differences in a Minor Archive: Feminist Activists and Scholars on Cohabitation

    Pages 364-398, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac039

    In an act of minor comparativism, this Article studies feminist writings on unmarried cohabitation from Canada’s jurisdictions of the common law and civil law. 

  • Choice of Law in the American Courts in 2021: Thirty-Fifth Annual Survey

    Pages 318-368, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac038

    This is the Thirty-Fifth Annual Survey of American Choice-of-Law Cases. It was written at the request of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Conflict of Laws,1 and is intended as a service to fellow teachers and to students of conflicts law, both inside and outside the United States. Its purpose remains the same as it has been from the beginning: to inform, rather than to advocate.

  • Comment ça va? The Status of French Laws in Vanuatu

    Pages 275–317, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac033

    Prior to Vanuatu’s independence in 1980, in the absence of applicable joint regulations, French law applied to French citizens and English law applied to British citizens.

  • The Jurisdictional Vacuum: Transnational Corporate Human Rights Claims in Common Law Home States

    Pages 227–274, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac036

    Private MNCs that operate in developing host states through overseas subsidiaries are regularly accused of human rights and environmental violations.

Editors-in-Chief

Helge Dedek

Associate Professor of Law and Director, Institute of Comparative Law
McGill University Faculty of Law

Franz Werro

Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center and University of Fribourg Faculty of Law

Book Review Editors

Richard Albert, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Joshua Karton, Queen’s University Faculty of Law

Former Editors-in Chief

Hessel E. Yntema † (1952-1966)
B.J. George † (1966-1968)
Alfred F. Conard (1968-1970)
John G. Fleming † (1971-1987)
Richard M. Buxbaum (1987-2003)
George A. Bermann (2003-2006)
James Gordley (2003-2008)
Mathias W. Reimann (2003-2013)
James Feinerman (2014-2015)

Executive Editorial Board

Luisa Antoniolli, University of Trento Faculty of Law
Gary F. Bell, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law
Francesca Bignami, George Washington University Law School
Mauro Bussani, University of Trieste Law Department
Donald C. Clarke, George Washington University Law School
Dominique Custos, University of Caen Law School
Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago Law School
Simone Glanert, University of Kent Law School
Hoi Kong, University of British Columbia Peter A. Allard School of Law
Máximo Langer, University of California Los Angeles School of Law
Ralf Michaels, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
Álvaro Santos, Georgetown University Law Center
Walter Stoffel, University of Fribourg Faculty of Law
Symeon C. Symeonides, Willamette University College of Law

Managing Editor

Paula Potter (Oxford University Press)

Articles Editor

Amber Lynch (McGill University Faculty of Law)

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