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Comparative Public Law

Comparative law has been a cornerstone of legal studies at the LSE at least since Professor Otto Kahn-Freund joined the law school in the 1930s. Today’s LSE Law School is truly international, with full-time members of academic staff from every continent, with diverse academic and professional qualifications, who integrate interdisciplinary approaches in their research. Teaching often takes place in classes comprised of students from close to two dozen different nationalities, which further contributes to a uniquely international setting for the study of comparative public law at the LSE. The value of comparative law is largely dependent upon its method and critical scholarship. To be practically useful as well as intellectually valuable comparative law must do more than simply compare rules. Especially in its public and constitutional context, comparative law embraces law and social change, different regulatory mechanisms, methodological self-reflection, legal cultures and traditions, as well as politics, history, and philosophy. Members of the group find that the breadth of intellectual interaction at LSE makes their engagement with comparative public law particularly challenging and rewarding.