proach starting out with an assumption that all societies perceive life as presenting more or less the same social problem. The 1992 Maastricht treaty gave an impression that the aim with theEUwas to merge the different legal systems of the member-states and create a common European legal culture. Pierre Legrandresponded with a provocative article stating that “European Legal Systems are not Converging”.10 According to Legrand, as long as we have different forms of legal education and different careers within the legal professions in the different member-states, there will be no convergence.11 Pierre Legrand is a preeminent representative for the “culturalists” within comparative law. He is bringing his arguments far out in his criticism of the post-WW II functionalist school of comparative law. Provoking but inspiring. In the Maastricht Treaty there was also an important clause regarding the role of the national cultures of the member states, their history and their languages in the upcoming European union. Today we find this clause in the Lisboa Treaty. On the one hand, identifying the Common European Culture is important. But the coin has two sides. Creating a European identity as well as each member state’s identity is equally important. The treaty stated in article 151 that “The Community shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore.“ This dual principle has initiated an interesting discussion about the national cultures and their histories from a wide perspective. In accordance to the upcoming European project the Finnish legal scholar Kaarlo Tuori introduced an important theory in the 1990s on “Towards a multi-layered view of modern law”.12 His theory has been frequently quoted and applied by legal scholars in the new millennium, and – I would say – contributed to the turn to history. Tuori identified three dimensions of the national law, expressed in three metaphors: The surface representing the valid law, the soil and its nutrition as the 125 kjell å modéer 10 Pierre Legrand, “European Legal Systems Are Not Converging”, The International and Comparative Law Quarterly 1996. 11 Notice also: Pierre Legrand, “Negative Comparative Law”, Journal of Comparative Law 2015. 12 Kaarlo Tuori, “Towards a multi-layered view of modern law”, in Aulis Aarnio, Robert Alexy, Gunnar Bergholz (eds.), Justice, morality and society: A tribute to Alexander Peczenik on the occasion of his 60th birthday 16. November 1997, Lund 1997.
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