Use the tabs above to understand how the Law Bod's collection is arranged. There is an Enquiry Desk on Level 2, just as you enter the main Reading Room: please do come and have a word if you are having any difficulty in using the library.
Looking for a Reading List title?
When you search SOLO for books on your Oxford Law Faculty Reading List you may find that the location is shown as Law Library Reserve Collection. Books in this collection must be asked for at the Enquiry Desk on Level 2. Please remember to bring your Oxford University Card or your Bodleian Reader's Card when you come to the Desk.
Note. The books in the Reserve Collection are available to all categories of readers, not just those on the particular course.
The Law Library's collection is fully catalogued on SOLO, Oxford University's online resource discovery tool. For those wishing to learn more about using searches, we recommend the following:
On Level 2, the level at which you enter the Law Library, an area of the open shelf collection has books with shelf marks beginning General.
This is where you will find comparative studies, and works surveying the response to legal problems in two or more jurisdictions.
Also on Level 2 is a smaller collection with shelf marks beginning Cw Gen. This has books where all the jurisdictions under comparison are (or were) members of the Commonwealth (the voluntary association of 54 independent and equal countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific).
Within General and Cw Gen the books are arranged by the last name of author or editor - there is no further subdivision into topics.
The Law Library is mid-way in project to convert current collections to the Moys Legal Classification scheme. Consequently, some of our newest comparative works may have shelf marks beginning KB. This is true of any comparative texts in the Law Reserve Collection. However both these are also Level 2.
Please feel free to ask at the Enquiry Desk if you have any difficulty finding any shelf mark!
Introduction to Comparative Law by 
An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Private Law by 
Legal Innovations in Asia: judicial lawmaking and the influence of comparative law by The are some free online tools which enable you to keep up with legal developments around the world. Some like Law Over Borders (the second link below) focus on answering the questions a "busy practitioner" may ask about a particular jurisdiction's treatment of a legal topic.
Practice and Theory in Comparative Law by 
Charting the Divide Between Common and Civil Law by 
Comparative Law by Comparative theory
You may find that SOLO finds some books with shelf marks beginning Jurisp which look as though they might be useful.
The Jurisp - short for Jurisprudence (aka legal philosophy) - is another area of open shelf collection on Level 2 - actually after the end of the General section.
Within Jurisp the books are arranged by the last name of author or editor.
Rethinking the Masters of Comparative Law by 
General Jurisprudence: understanding law from a global perspective by 
General Jurisprudence of Law and Society by Mixed legal tradition is the term commonly used for the form of legal pluralism which is the historic legacy of colonialism or of close geographic ties. The following jurisdictions have a legal system which draws on both the civil and the common law traditions.
Legal pluralism can also study the interplay of customary or indigenous and/or religious law (which may be transnational) within the borders of a national entity - which may also have a state-based legal system. This is sometimes referred to as polycentric law.
Subject search terms to use in SOLO:
Legal polycentricity
Customary law
Ethnological jurisprudence
The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research by 
Global Legal Pluralism: A Jurisprudence Beyond Borders by 
Mixed Jurisdictions Worldwide by 
Mixed Legal Systems in Comparative Perspective property and obligations in Scotland and South Africa by 
In Pursuit of Pluralist Jurisprudence by 
Mixed Legal Systems, East and West by 
Legal Traditions of the World by 
Legal Transplants by 
Disciplines in the Making : cross-cultural perspectives on elites, learning, and innovation by 
The Invention of Law in the West by 
Roman Law in European History by 
The Civil Law Tradition by If the Bodleian Libraries don't have the book you are looking for, we may be able to source it through Oxford's inter-library request service.
If the Bodleian Libraries don't have the print or ebook you are looking for, you can make a recommendation by completing the form below (Oxford Single-Sign On required).
