The document provides an overview of topics to be covered in a course on comparing legal cultures over multiple days. Day one will introduce the concept of legal culture and compare examples from different countries. Main issues discussed include defining culture, comparing legal systems versus legal traditions, and approaches to understanding foreign legal cultures. Methods of comparing legal cultures and addressing legal pluralism are also covered.

1. Comparing legal cultures An introduction to the main issues by Joxerramon Bengoetxea

2. Day One – Plan for the course – reading assignments

5. The Concept of culture The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, "to cultivate", generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion , rituals , norms of behavior and systems of belief A common way of understanding culture sees it as consisting of four elements that are "passed on from generation to generation by learning alone": 1 values comprise ideas about what in life seems important. They guide the rest of the cultur 2 norms consist of expectations of how people will behave in various situations. Each culture has methods, called sanctions , of enforcing its norms. Sanctions vary with the importance of the norm; norms that a society enforces formally have the status of laws 3 institutions are the structures of a society within which values and norms are transmitted 4 artifacts . . . —things, or aspects of material culture—derive from a culture's values and norms . (from Wiki)

6. Subcultures Large societies often have subcultures , or groups of people with distinct sets of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. The subculture may be distinctive because of the age of its members, or by their race , ethnicity , class or gender . The qualities that determine a subculture as distinct may be aesthetic , religious , occupational , political , sexual or a combination of these factors. But is subculture a value-loaded concept? Even if it is neutral, is it useful at all? Culture change is complex and has far-ranging effects. Sociologists and anthropologists believe that a holistic approach to the study of cultures and their environments is needed to understand all of the various aspects of change. Human existence may best be looked at as a "multifaceted whole." Only from this vantage can one grasp the realities of culture change. Culture and Symbols Symbols make culture possible, reproducible and readable. They are the "webs of significance" , they give regularity, unity and systematicity to the practices of a group. Geertz: C is (1) a system of symbols (2) reinforced by ceremonial action which acts (3) to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men.