Hardback
Quantitative Methods in Comparative Law
This invaluable and timely book provides a comprehensive “Conflict Prevention and Friction Analysis (CPFA) Model” for researching comparative law in our increasingly technology-led legal and economic order. It provides an in-depth examination of practical case studies, showcasing the real-world application of quantitative methods and theoretical approaches for analysing legal issues.
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Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
This invaluable and timely book provides a comprehensive “Conflict Prevention and Friction Analysis (CPFA) Model” for researching comparative law in our increasingly technology-led legal and economic order. It provides an in-depth examination of practical case studies, showcasing the real-world application of quantitative methods and theoretical approaches for analysing legal issues.
Over the course of this insightful book, Pier Giuseppe Monateri and Mauro Balestrieri thoroughly investigate the theory that the intention of law is not just to resolve conflicts, but to prevent their occurrence. Chapters critically analyse the historical and contemporary issues in quantitative methods, examine the main themes and approaches involved in quantitative and comparative law discussions, and present original research to illustrate key ideas. Providing an interdisciplinary approach, the book draws on insights and methodologies from other fields beyond law, including economics, statistics and political science.
This authoritative book is an essential resource for students and scholars of comparative law, empirical legal studies and research methods. It will also benefit law clerks, legal advisors and policymakers.
Over the course of this insightful book, Pier Giuseppe Monateri and Mauro Balestrieri thoroughly investigate the theory that the intention of law is not just to resolve conflicts, but to prevent their occurrence. Chapters critically analyse the historical and contemporary issues in quantitative methods, examine the main themes and approaches involved in quantitative and comparative law discussions, and present original research to illustrate key ideas. Providing an interdisciplinary approach, the book draws on insights and methodologies from other fields beyond law, including economics, statistics and political science.
This authoritative book is an essential resource for students and scholars of comparative law, empirical legal studies and research methods. It will also benefit law clerks, legal advisors and policymakers.
Critical Acclaim
‘Overall, the book offers an original and imaginative perspective, providing a fresh lens through which to view legal rules and legal systems as a whole. The authors’ innovative approach introduces new ways of thinking about legal structures, emphasizing the importance of analysing friction within these systems.’
– Francesco Parisi and Donatella Porrini, Journal of International Economic Law
‘Quantitative Methods in Comparative Law by Monateri and Balestrieri is a timely and thought-provoking research in the “transformative potential of data-driven decision-making”. “Quantification”, both authors contend, “has fundamentally altered the way we perceive and interact with the world” (p. 1). I could not agree more with them. Such changes have been facilitated by what I have termed the scientific state of mind, i.e. a fideistic attitude, according to which progress and economic development can only be achieved through quantitative methodologies. Such a quantitative frame, which “Measur[ed] the Immeasurable” and “Turn[ed] Law into Numbers”, made this shift possible.’
– Matteo Nicolini, Comparative Public Law Review
‘Does law exist? If it does, one nevertheless cannot see it. But what one can see, say these two leading Italian academics, is a whole range of quantifiable effects that attach to law. It is these empirical effects that the authors employ as a comparative methodological approach which, they argue, avoids the impressionistic models founded on culture and on ‘ideological pipe dreams’. A controversial book? Undoubtedly so, but one that is so important and well argued that no serious comparative lawyer and (or) legal epistemologist will ever be able to ignore it.’
– Geoffrey Samuel, Kent Law School, UK
‘Was our critical horizon not that of incommensurability, as the world order was insidiously overtaken by neoliberal “metric legality”? Taking us by complete surprise, this brilliant political-legal model of “friction theory” uses quantitative methods to understand social approaches to law and their (often perverse...) effects in the empirical world.’
– Horatia Muir Watt, Sciences Po Paris, France
– Francesco Parisi and Donatella Porrini, Journal of International Economic Law
‘Quantitative Methods in Comparative Law by Monateri and Balestrieri is a timely and thought-provoking research in the “transformative potential of data-driven decision-making”. “Quantification”, both authors contend, “has fundamentally altered the way we perceive and interact with the world” (p. 1). I could not agree more with them. Such changes have been facilitated by what I have termed the scientific state of mind, i.e. a fideistic attitude, according to which progress and economic development can only be achieved through quantitative methodologies. Such a quantitative frame, which “Measur[ed] the Immeasurable” and “Turn[ed] Law into Numbers”, made this shift possible.’
– Matteo Nicolini, Comparative Public Law Review
‘Does law exist? If it does, one nevertheless cannot see it. But what one can see, say these two leading Italian academics, is a whole range of quantifiable effects that attach to law. It is these empirical effects that the authors employ as a comparative methodological approach which, they argue, avoids the impressionistic models founded on culture and on ‘ideological pipe dreams’. A controversial book? Undoubtedly so, but one that is so important and well argued that no serious comparative lawyer and (or) legal epistemologist will ever be able to ignore it.’
– Geoffrey Samuel, Kent Law School, UK
‘Was our critical horizon not that of incommensurability, as the world order was insidiously overtaken by neoliberal “metric legality”? Taking us by complete surprise, this brilliant political-legal model of “friction theory” uses quantitative methods to understand social approaches to law and their (often perverse...) effects in the empirical world.’
– Horatia Muir Watt, Sciences Po Paris, France
Contents
Contents: Preface PART I GENEALOGIES AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES 1 Quantitative genealogy: the rise of numeric comparative law: Mauro Balestrieri 2 The metric legality: jurimetrics, legal cybernetics, and governance by indicators: Mauro Balestrieri PART II THINKING WITH MODELS 3 Thinking law with numbers: models of legal quantification: Pier Giuseppe Monateri 4 Quantitative frictional analysis of political order: Pier Giuseppe Monateri Conclusion: friction and the law: Pier Giuseppe Monateri and Mauro Balestrieri References Index
