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 68, Issue 4, December 2020
Articles
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The Wuthering Heights of Constitutional Amendment: A Portrait of Contemporary Theory and Practice
Pages 938–944, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa033
Issue Section: A Symposium on Richard Albert’s Constitutional Amendments. Richard Albert is the contemporary scholar who has done the most to place constitutional amendment in the global academic spotlight and invite (and actively seek the means to generate) a broad, inclusive, and refreshing discussion on their many dimensions.
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A Symposium on Richard Albert’s Constitutional Amendments: Dismemberment or Amendment?
Pages 934–937, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa034
Issue Section: A Symposium on Richard Albert’s Constitutional Amendments. “When is a constitutional amendment an amendment in name alone?”1 Richard Albert poses that question at the very start of Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking and Changing Constitutions…
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A Symposium on Richard Albert’s Constitutional Amendments: Constitutional Amendment, Unamendability, and the Democratic Paradox
Pages 929–933, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa035
Issue Section: A Symposium on Richard Albert’s Constitutional Amendments. Richard Albert has written a very interesting book discussing various methods of constitutional amendment, which offers a sophisticated multilevel analysis of the topic.
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The Question of Comparison
Pages 893–928, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avab003
Comparison is a key component of legal reasoning. We move merrily from like to like within the doctrine of precedent. We invoke comparison whenever we distinguish or apply a case. This Article begins by elucidating how comparison is present in law.
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Mapping Saudi Criminal Law
Pages 836–892, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa032
This Article maps the criminal law system in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia enacted a criminal procedure code in 2001, but it lacks a comprehensive penal code, relying instead on (i) identifications of certain acts as violations of the law (from public behavior to matters of the state administrative cogwheel) scattered in various pieces of legislation…
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International Law and Regional Norm Smuggling: How the EU and ASEAN Redefined the Global Regime on Human Trafficking
Pages 801–835, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa030
The European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have developed fundamentally different regional regimes to address human trafficking despite both drawing on the framework established by the U.N. Palermo Protocol.
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Informal Institutional Elements as Both Preconditions and Consequences of Effective Formal Legal Rules: The Failure of Constitutional Institution Building in Hungary
Pages 760–800, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa031
Institutions are made up of the interplay of three components: (i) formal rules, (ii) actual practices, and (iii) narratives (the last two are referred to jointly as informal institutional elements). However, lawyers in post-socialist countries do not see law through institutionalist lenses, but often nurture a false and simplistic idea of the law…
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Normal Rights, Just New: Understanding the Judicial Enforcement of Socioeconomic Rights
Pages 722–759, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa027
A common skeptical view holds that socioeconomic rights are a different kind of right than civil-political rights. Even those who support justiciable socioeconomic rights often see them as a different kind of right with special challenges. I argue that this view is wrong.
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Personal Jurisdiction in Comparative Context
Pages 701–721, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa020
This Article places the recent evolution of U.S. personal jurisdiction in comparative context. Comparativism helps illuminate and explain both the modest convergences and the more pervasive divergences.
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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