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The Importance of Context: Selecting Legal Systems in Comparative Legal Research

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  71. By tertium comparationis is meant a feature that two or more objects have in common. Most authors are of the opinion that to ascertain comparability in comparative law this feature must be the function of the objects to be compared. Some authors name ‘structure’ and ‘consequences’ as features that can constitute comparability as well. See Oderkerk, op. cit. n. 68, at pp. 61–88, 233–239.

  72. This conclusion is drawn by the comparatist herself (K. lest, Klachtrecht van de individuele werknemer. Rechtsvergelijkend onderzoek naar klachtprocedures in Amerikaame en Nederlandse ondernemingen [Grievance Law of the Individual Employee. A Comparative Legal Study on Grievance Procedures in American and Dutch Companies] (Deventer, Kluwer 1991) pp. 119–120).

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The author wishes to thank Professor Th.M. de Boer for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The text of this article is an amended and elaborated version of parts of her thesis written under supervision of Th.M. de Boer on the preliminary phase of comparative legal research published in 1999 (A.E. Oderkerk, De preliminaire fase van het rechtsvergelijkend onderzoek [The Preliminary Phase of Comparative Legal Research] (Nijmegen, Ars Aequi Libri 1999)).

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Oderkerk, M. The Importance of Context: Selecting Legal Systems in Comparative Legal Research. Neth Int Law Rev 48, 293–318 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165070X00001340

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