Friday, February 01, 2008

Codes and Hypertext: The Intertextuality of International and Comparative Law

The Syracuse Journal of International Law invited essays suggesting areas of further research and the creation of tools and resources for information studies related to international and comparative law. My contribution, now with the editors, suggests ways to explore literary and information theory that connect these to continuities between the print and electronic media experiences. The first paragraph is posted below:

Codes and Hypertext: The Intertextuality of International and Comparative Law
Marylin J. Raisch

Introduction

Recent discussion of scholarly communication in the emerging internet landscape of hypertext has brought the study of law into an interdisciplinary , intertextual framework . International and comparative legal research, as a major area of special inquiry for practice and scholarship, must be brought into this discussion along with the texts- primarily codes and treaties as well as constitutions and judicial opinions- which form its body of meaning. The language of its norms, whether they be of private law, contract, human rights, or religious law, resonate across cultural contexts, making comparative law and transnational understanding twin means to important ends such as peace and trade. Critical to this discussion and necessary to close this gap in international and comparative law in the global information society will be aspects of communication theory and the philosophy of technology.