Awareness of the need to deepen the method and methodology of legal research is only recent. The same is true for comparative law—by nature a more adventurous branch of legal research—which is often something researchers simply do whenever they look at foreign legal systems to answer one or more of a range of questions about law, whether these questions are doctrinal, economic, sociological, etc. Given the diversity of comparative research projects, the precise contours of the methods employed, or the epistemological issues raised by them, are to a great extent a function of the nature of the research questions asked. As a result, the search for a unique, one-size-fi ts-all comparative law methodology is unlikely to be fruitful. That, however, does not make refl ection on the method and culture of comparative law meaningless. Mark Van Hoecke has been interested in many topics throughout his career, but legal theory, comparative law and methodology of law stand out. Building upon his work, this book brings together a group of leading authors working at the crossroads of these themes: the methodology and culture of comparative law. We thank Richard Hart, the ‘house publisher’ of many a book of Mark Van Hoecke, who has been so kind as to also publish this volume.