ABSTRACT
In this chapter it is argued that the epistemology of comparative law can be discussed with the help of Plato’s famous story of a cave. The key issue concerns the relation between legal doctrine and scholarly comparative law and how the identity of the comparatist differs from that of the doctrinal legal scholar. The comparatist has come to grasp that to understand foreign law they need to understand the context of the law as they know that similar laws can function differently in different environments. The problem is that the comparatist is unable to communicate their emancipatory message to those who dwell in the epistemic cave of legal doctrine. Pier Giuseppe Monateri’s scholarship is seen an invitation to the cave dwellers to see law more broadly than legal doctrine allows. It is concluded that scholars like Monateri are arguing for legal scholarship that can enrich and provide critical insights to law beyond the cave of legal doctrine.
