Legal change and the role of the scholar: scratching beneath the surface of comparative taxonomies

Both the classical theory of legal families and its more modern articulations place East European jurisdictions in the same box because they give precedence to their common socialist experience. Not only they serve as distorting mirrors propelling stereotypes, but also they close off promising avenues of comparative research because of the politically tainted pre-understanding(s) of legal systems which they impose. This article argues that legal change is frequently facilitated by small groups of individuals who are often scholars. By paying closer attention to their role and incentives as well as the networks to which they belonged, we may see traditional categories realign and gain a more in-depth understanding of the patterns of legal change—namely, the intricate ways in which law evolves—and uncover little-known but important relationships between legal systems which comparative taxonomies either ignore or fail to explain. The article illustrates its argument by zooming in onto the role of three scholars—Lyuben Dikov, Filippo Vassalli, and Karl Llewellyn—who may hold the key to explaining interesting, but unexpected similarities between Bulgarian, Italian, and US law