Written in a clear and accessible style, this prize-winning work seeks torecast the discipline of comparative law and offers a major new means ofconceptualizing law and legal relations across the world.Instead of a narrow focus on national legal systems, Glenn places national lawsin the broader context of legal traditions. He examines seven of the world'smost important and complex legal traditions in detail: chthonic (or indigenous)law; talmudic law; civil law; islamic law; common law; hindu law; and Asian law.Each tradition is examined in terms of its institutions and substantive law,its foundational concepts and methods, its attitude towards the concept ofchange, and its teaching on relations with other traditions and peoples. Mutualinfluences throughout history are noted and, whilst the major and importantdifferences are admitted, the various traditions are nevertheless shown to befundamentally commensurable.Legal Traditions of the World concludes with a synthesis of the contribution oflegal traditions to the understanding of tradition generally. The normativityand multiplicity of the world's legal traditions are examined, as is theirability, as complex traditions, to reconcile major differences of opinion orbelief in a peaceable manner. Complex traditions are ultimately shown torepresent multivalent forms of logic and can thus be regarded as the best meansof facilitating sustainable human diversity in an increasingly interdependentworld.