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1 Italian Rev. Int'l & Compar. L. 1 (2021-2022)

handle is hein.journals/ilnrwoin1 and id is 1 raw text is: THE ITALIAN REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AND ofitaband COMPARATIVE LAW 1 (2021) 1-3 comparaeLaw BRILL brill.com/iric Editorial This issue marks the beginning of the Italian Review of International and Comparative Law (IRIC), which aims to become an authoritative forum for debate on a wide range of topics in public and private international law, com- parative law, and European law. The underlying idea is that the areas of inter- national law and comparative law are increasingly intertwined and thus most suitable to be studied together, with the latter being not only a discipline per se but also a method to investigate the former. In fact, the very name of the Italian Review deliberately hints at the adoption of a comparative law approach in the study and practice of international law, and this is justified by three main reasons. Firstly, international law is often understood and applied through the prism of municipal legal categories or of specific national approaches. But in order to avoid running the risk of turning a supposedly cosmopolitan disci- pline into a rather parochial one, cultural and language barriers favouring the diffusion of only a few dominant national approaches should be removed as far as possible. Secondly, the promotion of a comparative approach refers not only to the application of international law in different domestic systems but also to the necessity of analysing the ways in which international law itself is applied by courts and tribunals pertaining to different areas - such as, for example, international criminal law and international investment law. This is essential in order to understand international law as a unitary field of the law and avoid its so-called fragmentation. Thirdly, phenomena such as the increasing importance of international and supranational organisations in the field of fundamental rights protection have favoured a circulation of patterns, doctrines, techniques and standards that confirm the need for a comparative approach, which is increasingly used in many areas of international law. It is a strong belief of the Editors of this Review that the Italian doctrinal approaches to international and comparative law are not as influential in the global scene as their richness and excellence would deserve. The Italian © KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2021 1 DOI:10.1163/27725650-01010001