Book Reviews Schlesinger, Rudolf B., et al. Comparative Law: Cases, Text, Materials (6th ed.). New York: Foundation Press, 1998. Pp. xxxix, 1004, Index. Wise, Baade and Herzog completed this edition of Comparative Law: Cases, Texts and Materials without the late Rudolf Schlesinger. The editors have respected the basic structure of previous editions, while adding some new sections and updating the footnotes. The perspective of this classic work remains the problem of foreign law for American lawyers. This set of issues is dealt with in Part I of the book. Part II tackles the distinction between common law and civil law. The editors assume that their targeted reader, the American law student, already familiar with the 'theory and practice' of common law, needs only a description of civil law. Here, the materials and a useful summary of the same materials give an accurate idea of the history of civil law in Europe and of the meaning and importance of codification in a civil law context. The importance of civil procedure in affecting the substantive rules of civil law systems is also carefully explained. The framing device of a conversation between Mr. Smooth, Mr. Edge, and Professor Comparovich, who is called in as a consultant in an important transaction, is preserved. An analysis follows of some of the differences of positive law in civil law and common law systems, and we are shown how the different factors which constitute a legal system interplay in the choice of the possible solution to the problem. Three topics are addressed in detail in Part III: agency, conflict of laws and corporations. The book ends with a discussion in Part IV of translation and classification as specific hazards of comparative law. For those familiar with what has been considered the casebook on comparative law, this brief description of the contents makes it clear that the editors have not broken off with the past. The spirit imprinted by Schlesinger on the book has been preserved: we can see it in the far-reaching collection of materials from different civil law traditions, in the effort not to homologize these different traditions, in the need to explain hidden divergences between legal systems, in the interest in delving into depth regarding the differences, in the dissatisfaction with descriptions of the façade, in the emphasis given to the role of legal education in the shaping of legal systems, and in the constant uncertainty between theoretical explorations of comparative law and practical issues of foreign law that may be discerned in the text. The decision not to change the structure of the book prevented the authors from incorporating some new perspectives in comparative law into the work. 'Post-colonialism' is a term unknown to the text, although an important field in comparative law studies. There are few pages where the editors address the problem of the inadequacy of the civil law-common law distinction in the classification of the legal systems of the world. In every legal system, we are told, there are to be found some elements of both, due mainly to the European imperialism of the past; but treatment solely in terms of the common law-civil law distinction in the description of the world 'smacks of Eurocentrism' (at 285). This does not seem enough to describe changes and problems that legal systems, in their 'post-colonial' experience, share. The legal turmoil in the ex Soviet countries is acknowledged, but the role of international organization in the transplanting of legal patterns is ignored. The editors chose to include the law of the European Union in the book, and this is one of the major positive changes in the new edition. The history and the institutions of the European Union are briefly outlined, and a detailed description of the role of the European Court of Justice is provided. This account is included in the section on civil law, a location which represents in itself a particular interpretation of the European Union - its law regarded more as a new addition to civil law, or rather continental civil law, than as a new legal system, of its own unique kind, which can be analysed through the lens of comparative law. This raises questions about the scope of comparative law. Comparative Law: Case, Texts and Materials still places an extraordinary amount of information in the reader's hands. Yet, the pragmatic US perspective results in this edition giving an incomplete account of comparative law as it is today. Comparative law crosses disciplinary boundaries; this book risks becoming a compendium of foreign law for the American reader rather than an enterprise in comparative law. Hopefully, future editions will engage more fully with contemporary debates, while continuing to preserve the methodological insights and the remarkable achievement of the late Rudolf Schlesinger. Bianca Gardella Tedeschi Università del Piemonte Orientale 'A. Avogadro'
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