This book provides a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the legal approach to common areas of substantive law, the law of obligations, commercial and corporate law within the major legal systems of the world. It examines the origins of common law, civil law and socialist legal traditions as well as non-Western legal traditions. It also provides a blueprint for comparative study, a broad historical introduction and a selective overview of the law governing key topics which have presented similar problems in different legal systems. The analysis of substantive law focuses on France and Germany as the archetypal civil law jurisdictions, and English law as the main common law comparator. The text of the third edition has been updated and revised to take account of recent legal developments particularly in the European Union and in the Russian Federation, in the post-Soviet Union era. It also assesses the impact of the globalisation of legal institutions and the evolving 'new world order' in the early 21st century. Comparative Law in a Changing World provides an accessible source of reference for researchers wishing to obtain a user friendly approach to comparative legal studies. It is also designed as a course text for undergraduates and for postgraduates wishing to trace the influence of common law and civil law legal traditions on jurisdictions across the world.