THE APPLICABILITY OF COMPARATIVE CONCEPTS P van Laer(Maastricht University (1) Readers are reminded that this work is protected by copyright While they are free to use the ideas expressed in it, they may not copy, distribute or publish the work or part of it, in any form, printed electronic or otherwise, except for reasonable quoting, clearly indicating the source. Readers are permitted to make copies, electronically or printed, for personal and classroom use Contents 1 Introduction 1. I Comparative concepts 1.2 The applicability of comparative concepts 2. The formation of comparative concepts 2. 1 Extensional concepts 2.2 Functional concepts 2.3 Immanent concepts 3. Comparative concepts of empirical use 3. 1 Extensional concepts 3.2 Functional concepts 3.3 Immanent concepts 4. Comparative concepts on the Internet 4. 1 The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals 4.2 Comparative thesauruses? 5 Conclusions References Footnotes 1 Introduction 1. I Comparative concepts It is still an open question posed to the discipline of comparative law how to develop a satisfactory set of concepts to be used for stating and thinking about particular problems or hypotheses. To this question, I have elaborated some answers in my doctoral dissertation( Van Laer, 1997; in Dutch) The book has an English summary, which is also available on the Internet (http://www-edocs.unimaas.nl/general/ism1997.htm#cvl).TheEnglishsummarygivesanideaof two subjects, comparative systems of arrangement and characterization in private international lawTHE APPLICABILITY OF COMPARATIVE CONCEPTS C.J.P. van Laer (Maastricht University)(1) Readers are reminded that this work is protected by copyright. While they are free to use the ideas expressed in it, they may not copy, distribute or publish the work or part of it, in any form, printed, electronic or otherwise, except for reasonable quoting, clearly indicating the source. Readers are permitted to make copies, electronically or printed, for personal and classroom use. Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Comparative concepts 1.2 The applicability of comparative concepts 2. The formation of comparative concepts 2.1 Extensional concepts 2.2 Functional concepts 2.3 Immanent concepts 3. Comparative concepts of empirical use 3.1 Extensional concepts 3.2 Functional concepts 3.3 Immanent concepts 4. Comparative concepts on the Internet 4.1 The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals 4.2 Comparative thesauruses? 5. Conclusions References Footnotes 1. Introduction 1.1 Comparative concepts It is still an open question posed to the discipline of comparative law how to develop a satisfactory set of concepts to be used for stating and thinking about particular problems or hypotheses. To this question, I have elaborated some answers in my doctoral dissertation (Van Laer, 1997; in Dutch). The book has an English summary, which is also available on the Internet (http://www-edocs.unimaas.nl/general/ism1997.htm#CvL). The English summary gives an idea of two subjects, comparative systems of arrangement and characterization in private international law