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 1, March 2022
Articles
-
New Media and Freedom of Expression: Rethinking the Constitutional Foundations of the Public Sphere
Pages 222–226, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac028
With the significant increase of the role of online platforms in today’s world, it is natural that attention is often focused on the role of these platforms.
-
Mapping the Cosmopolitan Legal Imaginary: Recent Chinese Scholarship on Dispute Resolution
Pages 210–221, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac027
In recent years, China has led a not-so-silent revolution in internationalizing its dispute resolution mechanisms, including its courts, arbitration commissions, and mediation bodies, in order to facilitate cross-border investment and trade.
-
Searching for W.P.M. Kennedy: The Biography of an Enigma
Pages 205–209, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac026
Americans are obsessed with their history. References to the founders are frequently found in American constitutional and political discourse. This historical fixation continues to produce thick volumes not only of political biographies, but also of legal ones. In addition to the many biographies of U.S. Supreme Court justices, one can also find biographies of leading legal academics including Christopher Columbus Langdell,1 Roscoe Pound,2 and Karl Llewellyn.
-
A Legal and Political Assessment of Challenges to Abortion Laws by Anti-choice Activists in Australia and the Progression of Abortion Law in Australia and the United States
Pages 162–204, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac029
Historically, in Australia the issue of abortion had not attracted the violent protests that are frequently part of the American political landscape. Nor had it featured prominently in parliamentary debates. This began to change in 2004 when the issue was put on the political agenda by a small but vocal group of conservative members of the Federal Parliament.
-
The Turn to Confession Bargaining in German Criminal Procedure: Causes and Comparisons with American Plea Bargaining
Pages 139–161, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac025
In recent decades German criminal procedure has developed a practice of confession bargaining, in which defense counsel negotiates with the trial judge for the defendant to confess the charged offense in exchange for a milder sentence than would result if the defendant were to contest the charge. The German practice resembles American plea bargaining in many respects. This Article probes the similarities and the differences between the two systems of negotiated criminal justice. The Article discusses the origins of the German practice, its tensions with historic principles of the procedure system, and the troubled efforts of the courts and the legislature to justify and to regulate the practice.
-
Courts, Constitutionalism, and State Capacity: A Preliminary Inquiry
Pages 95–138, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac009
Modern constitutional theory deals almost exclusively with the mechanisms for controlling the exercise of public power. In particular, the focus of constitutional scholars lies in explaining and justifying how courts can effectively keep the exercise of public power within bounds.
-
The Politicization of Corporate Governance: A Viable Alternative?
Pages 43–94, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac007
It is now well-established that different markets may develop different growth-supporting institutions that can give rise to public firms and set capital markets in motion. Yet, the paradigm view still holds local alternatives as merely stepping stones, a transitional passage toward achieving a deeper and more advanced market, at which point conventional legal and market institutions—modeled on Anglo-American corporate capitalism—are still held necessary.
-
Legal Pluralism and the Struggle for Customary Law in the Vietnamese Highlands
Volume 70, Issue 1, March 2022, Pages 1–42, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac024
For centuries, diverse groups of people living in the highlands of Southeast Asia have resisted lowland empires in China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The interaction between lowlanders and highlanders has been described as “internal colonization”—a process involving the absorption or displacement of highland communities and customary law.
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)
AJCL Links
AJCL SUBMISSION INFO
Submit a Manuscript & AJCL Submission Info for Authors (Scholastica)
AJCL Journal Info @ Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subscription Rates & Policies: Please visit the OUP AJCL page to subscribe.