The Journal of Comparative Law

“Global Law and Particular Legalities: Essays in Honour of William Twining”

Guest Editors:
Prof. Alex Green (文 浩 航 ), Associate Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Academic
Associate, 23ES Chambers (London and Manchester)
Prof. Jennifer Hendry (文林言), Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Academic Associate,
23ES Chambers (London and Manchester)

When William Twining passed away on 9 October 2025, the global legal academy lost one of its most original and eclectic thinkers. Twining was a scholar of extraordinary range, leading debates not only within comparative law and comparative legal studies, but also within general jurisprudence, legal history, socio-legal studies, and the law of evidence. He argued passionately for legal scholarship as an open and inclusive enterprise, frequently magnifying voices from the Global South and fiercely critiquing what he saw as an over-reliance upon Anglo-American assumptions and perspectives within the academic writing of his peers. Twining can be credited not only with the meteoric rise of the ‘Law in context’ movement, but also with the expansion of general jurisprudence and the philosophy of law into fields such as legal pluralism and law and globalisation. For Twining, law was both everywhere and always from somewhere in particular.
This special issue is dedicated to these, and other aspects, of Twining’s towering legacy. The guest
editors invite the submission of abstracts of no more than 250 words by 9 January 2026, with an
expectation that, if initially accepted, complete papers will be delivered no later than 30 June 2026, for final review and publication within the Journal of Comparative Law. Completed papers should be no more than 10,000 words, including footnotes. Submissions may concern any aspect of Twining’s intellectual or pedagogical legacy, however, the guest editors would particularly welcome abstracts and papers engaging with the following, either alone or in combination:

• Comparative law and comparative legal studies as intellectual disciplines.
• General jurisprudence, understood as both a descriptive and an inclusive enterprise.
• Law both and, and within, the Global South.
• Law, empire, and imperialism.
• Law as a global and transnational phenomenon.
• ‘Law in context’ as method and methodology.
• Legal and normative pluralism.
• Legal pedagogy and law teaching from a comparative perspective.
• Legal realism in historical and comparative perspective(s).
• Socio-legal studies and its connection(s) to comparative law.
• The law of evidence in comparative perspective(s).

Abstracts are particularly welcome from scholars from the Global South, as well as from early career academics and colleagues with backgrounds otherwise under-represented within the academy. Initial submissions should be sent, together with a short biography of no more than 150 words, to Prof. AlexGreen at aggreen@cuhk.edu.hk.