In a tribute to the work and writings of Professor John Bell, leading scholars present essays on factors affecting the course of ‘legal development’ in common law and civilian systems. This introductory chapter draws on their essays and John Bell’s scholarship to reflect on what is distinctive about comparative legal research. It shows how a comparative enquiry expands the boundaries of the law’s domain beyond ‘black-letter’ legal knowledge to embrace the reasons and context for legal development. It reminds us that a comparative law enquiry includes looking at the law’s roots in society, that is, at the law both in action and in the books, the legal institutions, legal cultures, and the extra-legal environment. References to the authors’ case studies in tort, contract, legal history and judicial studies illustrate the discussion of the key features of comparative law research.

John Bell’s work consistently interrogates why legal systems are the way that they are. French legal cultures drew out the importance of understanding a system’s legal culture(s). In a joint project with David Ibbetson, European Legal Development, a broader methodology and programme for comparative legal analysis emerged. Their focus was twofold: to shift analysis from legal rules towards their direction of travel over time and, crucially, to provide insight into the specific factors, perhaps distinct between systems, that accounted for a given national narrative. In this chapter, using a core problem in medical liability, an Anglo-Germanic case study of Bell and Ibbetson’s methodology is provided. First, the German system, which Bell and Ibbetson did not consider in relation to medical liability is examined. Second, through a reassessment of key English sources, a plausible alternative to their suggested narrative of homogenous development is constructed. Finally, their assumptions about the relationship between legal and social change and identify key questions for future applications are reflected on.

This chapter will introduce the book, discussing the existing literature and placing the book in the context of legal history studies and comparative law studies. It will provide a historical and conceptual framework for reading the subsequent chapters.

The Constitution of the Church in Wales was made to facilitate and order its public life. Drafted on the eve of disestablishment, the Constitution has been changed piecemeal over the past 100 years. While today its fundamentals remain much the same, there have been numerous landmark changes. This chapter studies the Constitution, from the perspective of the role of key figures in its development, in relation to: the sources and foundations of the Constitution in civil law; the formation and drafting of the Constitution (and the role of John Sankey in this); the structure and revision of the Constitution; its purposes and enforceable nature; and the institutional organisation of the Church in Wales. These are critically explored, where appropriate, in the context of principles of canon law common to the churches of the Anglican Communion.