Legal Theory as a Bridge between the Sociology of Law, Legal History and the Comparative Law: Some Methodological Reflections Following the International Workshop on “Legal Survivals and Global Legal Pluralism” (International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati, Spain, 8–9 May 2025)

Abstract

The recent International Workshop on “Legal Survivals and Global Legal Pluralism”, held at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL) on 8–9 May 2025, brought new insights into the developing of the theory of legal survivals. A legal survival is a legal form which was functional towards an earlier context of political, economic, ideological, and socio-cultural relations, but which nonetheless survived the more or less abrupt change of that context, in particular a change having the nature of a socio-economic and/or political transformation, transition or revolution. The paper briefly presents the concept, theory and methodology of legal survivals, based on the existing literature (section 2), it provides an analytical overview of the papers presented at the workshop (section 3), and it discusses – in a synthetic manner – the recurrent methodological questions addressed during the workshop (section 4).