Conducting Law and Society Research

Abstract

Through interviews with many of the most noteworthy authors in law and society, Conducting Law and Society Research takes students and scholars behind the scenes of empirical scholarship, showing the messy reality of research methods. The challenges and the uncertainties, so often missing from research methods textbooks, are revealed in candid detail. These accessible and revealing conversations about the lived reality of classic projects will be a source of encouragement and inspiration to those embarking on empirical research, ranging across the full array of disciplines that contribute to law and society. For all of the ambiguities and challenges to the social 'scientific' study of law, the reflections found in this book - collectively capturing a portrait of the field through the window of the research efforts - individually remind readers that 'good research' displays not an absence of problems, but the care taken in negotiating them.

The Empirical Approach to Research in Property Law

“…Alternatively, the researcher may wish to use the data obtained to test a particular hypothesis, to support a particular theory or to offer a contextual account of the law. What is significant, however, is that empirical legal research "provides information of a different character from that which can be obtained through other methods of 9 Empirical legal scholars have noted the influence that a, sometimes chance, relationship with an established scholar had on their decision to conduct empirical legal research, see Genn, Partington and Wheeler, n 1 at [74]. See also Hillyard P, "Law's Empire: Socio-Legal Empirical Research in the Twenty-first Century" (2007) 34.2 Journal of Law and Society 266 at 268.…”

“…This lack of formal training can give rise to what Schmidt and Halliday coin as Methodological Anxiety Syndrome (MAS) which is "a pervasive and sometimes debilitating doubt about whether one has the necessary methodological skills to embark on empirical socio-legal work in the first place". 66 The extent to which legal academics are justified in exhibiting symptoms of MAS can be demonstrated by reference to an example taken from the United States. Hull, then Associate Professor at Rutger's University, published a less than flattering review 67 of Mann's research into 5,317 civil cases involving debt in Connecticut.…”

“…While it is easy for legal scholars to be intimidated by a lack of formal training, Schmidt and Halliday do not think that formal training, although advisable, is a prerequisite of sound methodological technique. 71 They concede that even "naive fieldwork" 72 has value, not in and of itself as such, but as a starting point from which the researcher can move forward, improving their skills and developing more sophisticated methods. They encourage researchers to offer a "warts and all" 73 account of their projects, to admit the mistakes made and to give due credit to the often serendipitous nature of empirical research so that it might "relieve many of the worries that plague students and scholars".…”

“…They encourage researchers to offer a "warts and all" 73 account of their projects, to admit the mistakes made and to give due credit to the often serendipitous nature of empirical research so that it might "relieve many of the worries that plague students and scholars". 74 Some suggest that a lack of training can be compensated for by working collaboratively with colleagues who do have the necessary expertise. 75 This will require lawyers to break away from the "lone scholar" model of scholarship which is dominant in law schools, 76 and embrace collaborative and multidisciplinary research.…”

PREFIGURATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE: Mobility, Citizenship, and the Agency of Objects

“…In the interviews I gathered more detail about participants’ personal reflections beyond those presented publicly, with an emphasis on allowing them to tell their stories. Informed by methods used in other studies of legal geography and legal consciousness (Halliday and Schmidt, 2009; Braverman, 2014), my aim was to understand the ways in which people engage with citizenship through their interventions on city streets. Accordingly, I focused on how participants themselves explained and discussed their experiences.…”