Editors' preface. Diapositives v. movies: the inner dynamics of the law and its comparative account: a companion M. Bussani and U. Mattei; Part I. Knowing Comparative Law: 1. Comparative law and neighbouring disciplines M. Reimann; 2. Political ideology and comparative law Duncan Kennedy; 3. Economic analysis and comparative law N. Garoupa and T. Ginsburg; 4. Comparative law and anthropology Lawrence Rosen; 5. Comparative law and language B. Pozzo; Part II. Comparative Law Fields: 6. Comparative studies in private law (insights from a European point of view) F. Werro; 7. Comparative administrative law F. Bignami; 8. Comparative constitutional law G. Frankenberg; 9. Comparative criminal justice E. Grande; 10. Comparative civil justice O. Chase and V. Varano; 11. Comparative law and the international organizations G. Bermann; Part III. Comparative Law in the Flux of Civilizations: 12. The East-Asian legal tradition T. Ruskola; 13. The Jewish legal tradition A. J. Jacobson and J. D. Bleich; 14. The Islamic legal tradition Khaled Abou El Fadl; 15. The Sub-Saharan legal tradition R. Sacco; 16. The Latin American and Caribbean legal tradition (repositioning Latin America and the Caribbean in the contemporary maps of comparative law) D. Lopez Medina; 17. Mixed legal systems V. Palmer; 18. Democracy and the Western legal tradition M. Bussani.