About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

1 Italian Rev. Int'l & Compar. L. 1 (2021-2022)

handle is hein.journals/ilnrwoin1 and id is 1 raw text is: THE ITALIAN REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AND            ofitaband
COMPARATIVE LAW 1 (2021) 1-3               comparaeLaw
BRILL                                                          brill.com/iric
Editorial
This issue marks the beginning of the Italian Review of International and
Comparative Law (IRIC), which aims to become an authoritative forum for
debate on a wide range of topics in public and private international law, com-
parative law, and European law. The underlying idea is that the areas of inter-
national law and comparative law are increasingly intertwined and thus most
suitable to be studied together, with the latter being not only a discipline per se
but also a method to investigate the former. In fact, the very name of the Italian
Review deliberately hints at the adoption of a comparative law approach in
the study and practice of international law, and this is justified by three main
reasons. Firstly, international law is often understood and applied through the
prism of municipal legal categories or of specific national approaches. But in
order to avoid running the risk of turning a supposedly cosmopolitan disci-
pline into a rather parochial one, cultural and language barriers favouring the
diffusion of only a few dominant national approaches should be removed as
far as possible. Secondly, the promotion of a comparative approach refers not
only to the application of international law in different domestic systems but
also to the necessity of analysing the ways in which international law itself
is applied by courts and tribunals pertaining to different areas - such as, for
example, international criminal law and international investment law. This
is essential in order to understand international law as a unitary field of the
law and avoid its so-called fragmentation. Thirdly, phenomena such as the
increasing importance of international and supranational organisations in the
field of fundamental rights protection have favoured a circulation of patterns,
doctrines, techniques and standards that confirm the need for a comparative
approach, which is increasingly used in many areas of international law.
It is a strong belief of the Editors of this Review that the Italian doctrinal
approaches to international and comparative law are not as influential in
the global scene as their richness and excellence would deserve. The Italian

© KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2021 1 DOI:10.1163/27725650-01010001

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most