Khalabudenko O.A. Some Issues of Comparative Law Methodology — from Functionalism to Construction and Deconstruction

Abstract: The paper presents the author’s vision of the ways to resolve the complex of philosophical and methodological problems in comparative law. The author points out the possibility of applying the legal constructivism method for determining the subject sphere of comparison. The author proves that the externalized result of applying the functional structural method is possible only at the level of the comparable legal reality. The relevant concept (“construction”), according to the author’s opinion, should be able to be expressed in the objective form; it should be characterized by certainty and autonomy among other legal phenomena. The paper covers the author’s point of view on the use of the construction on three levels of dimension: theoretical, normative and substantial. The implicit properties of the construction specific to each level of dimension can resolve the problems, arising at the implementation of the Comparative Law issues. The application of the method of deconstruction allows solving a number of methodological issues, related to the application of metaphysical conceptual categories of the legal science, which stresses the effectiveness of the method of constructivism for Comparative Law.

Keywords: