Abstract
The Colombian legal culture has not been able to make a fruitful use of the available methodologies in the area of comparative law. National doctrine has understood comparative law as a contrast between two legal provisions that belong to different legal systems without being aware that this kind of comparison is contributing to perpetuate old
colonialist ideologies. This phenomenon is visible when Colombian doctrine compares our legal provisions with those issued in what might be called countries of the first world. Under this perspective, it appears that law travels from the civilized world to the uncivilized. Therefore, I think that an alternative look upon comparative law can be a useful tool
in order to stop looking upon legal systems within a hierarchy in which the colonizer subjects de colonized. This article criticizes the way our doctrine has understood comparative law, explores the advantages that an alternative use of this methodology will bring to our legal culture, shows one way in which comparative law can be reoriented, and explains the consequences that this approach could imply in an area as
International Humanitarian law.
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