“Writing the Earth and Representing the World”: The Cartographical Ambitions of Comparative Law

This article examines the special relationship between comparative law and geography. It reappraises the commonalities between the two disciplines and ascertains how the former peruses geographical features when arranging world knowledge in ways that fit into its conceptual framework. Far from being bare facts, physical geographical features are rewritten so as to allow comparative law to devise its own representation of the world’s legal systems. To this end, the discipline makes deliberate use of geography, in general, and cartography, in particular. Both have supplied and still supply the practical knowledge comparative law needs to naturalize its world picture, manufacture legal spatialities, and assert the superiority of Western legal traditions. Under no circumstances were its cartographic ambitions confined to the colonial era; the practice of classifying and ranking legal systems also characterizes the current global politics of space. Through digital technology, these ambitions take the form of indexes and indicators to assess the economic performance of the legal systems of the world.