Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Fifty years ago, Alan Watson’s ‘Legal Transplants: An Approach to Comparative Law’ was published. Since then, the use of the term ‘legal transplants’ has grown considerably, particularly in recent years. The literature has also broadened the scope of analysis to include many new aspects. For example, it has discussed how legislative drafting can contribute to the design of effective legal transplants, courts’ role in applying transplanted rules, and whether the different understandings of rules may challenge the notion of legal transplants. As a result, legal transplants are now a multifaceted topic. This book aims to present a nuanced and fair analysis of the use of and literature on legal transplants. However, beyond exploring many details, it also aims to shift the debate in two important ways. First, it suggests that research and practice of legal transplants cannot, and should not, draw on legal scholarship only. There is a rich literature in other disciplines on topics such as policy transfer, cultural transfer, entangled history, and diffusion of ideas that closely connect to the notion of legal transplants. Second, this book aims to make a strong case for legal transplants. It will show that legal transplants do happen frequently, that they often do work, and that they should indeed be a main tool for lawmakers. This position does not dispute valid criticism expressed in the literature. However, this book challenges the stance that any problems or concerns should lead to a new legal isolationism.</jats:p>