Legal comparison, municipal law and public international law : terminological confusion?

Abstract

The ever-increasing interaction between and intertwining of municipal law and public international law have profound consequences for legal comparison. This is particularly evident when one looks at the overlapping of a number of terms and concepts in these two areas of law. The distinctiveness of some and the similarity of others, are a source of confusion and uncertainty that may hamper legal comparison and even produce unreliable results. This contribution aims to identify some difficulties that may be encountered when engaging in legal comparison involving municipal and public international law.