Legal traditions frequently feature in the literature of both comparative law and legal history. They are relevant to comparative law as far as they relate the past to contemporary legal systems; thus, as a first limitation, this chapter will not deal with legal traditions that have no or little relevance today.1 Second, this chapter takes the position of traditional comparative law as a starting point; thus, it does not aim to address all possible legal traditions but follows the focus on major Western legal traditions. Third, this chapter is specifically interested in the diffusion of legal traditions. It therefore addresses the way laws have diffused across countries from both a conceptual but and also an empirical-historical perspective.
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