Institute of Comparative Law

The KU Leuven Institute for Comparative Law is a research centre, specialized in the comparison of integral legal systems or parts of legal systems, as well as the goals of comparative law and the methodology of comparative law. Research is done in private law as well as public law.

The focus of comparative law is to compare different legal systems and concepts to determine their differences and similarities. As such, comparative law is an important aspect of the required legal skills of a 21st-century jurist, which explains why comparative law has found its place in the curriculum of law studies at universities around the globe. Citizens and governments are having more and more frequent international encounters, and form a link in international networks or in other forms of international cooperation. If one desires to manage this reality correctly, he needs not only knowledge of his own law, but also knowledge of foreign law as well as the relation between both laws.

The Institute coordinates all the teaching of comparative law at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law.

Most importantly, however, the Institute is involved in scientific research. In general, it contributes to acquiring:

• understanding of the goals and methodology of comparative law;
• understanding and knowledge on the essentials of foreign legal systems in light of their social and historical backgrounds;
• understanding of the interaction between different legal jurisdictions, and national, supranational and international law;
• understanding of the issues manifesting when unifying laws, especially within the European context;
• understanding of the issues manifesting when law is applied in a multicultural society.

An important milestone was the publication of the comparative law handbook by the Institute for Comparative Law, “Rechtsvergelijking - De uitdagende wereld van het recht”, published by ACCO in 2018.

For the years 2018-2022, the Institute for Comparative Law has two main research lines.
The first one is: legal transplants in small States.
The second one is: the legal consequences of colonization.
Apart from these two research lines, the Institute for Comparative Law is open to cooperate with other comparative law research centres, in Belgium as well as internationally.

The Institute for Comparative Law exists out of a team of professors and researchers who aim to fulfil the challenges and ambitions explained above, both for what education is concerned as well as research. The core of the Institute is formed by prof. dr. Danny Pieters and prof. dr. Bert Demarsin. Furthermore, the Institute can count on several assistants and researchers. All professors and researchers at KU Leuven who are doing comparative research or who want to do so are invited to become associate members of the Institute for Comparative Law.