Law, Sociology and Method

Abstract

Socio-Legal research is, in some respects, founded on a paradox in that, while it claims or aspires to be an interdisciplinary subject with particular ties with sociology, the majority of its practitioners are based in law schools, and have not received any systematic training in either sociological theory or research methods. There are, of course, many academics from other disciplines who have contributed to the field over the years, and whose studies appear on undergraduate reading lists. There has also been genuine collaboration between academic lawyers and social scientists that has resulted in many interesting and insightful studies about law. Nevertheless, we would argue that this inter-change has been limited to a few institutions, and that a sustained and open dialogue with sociology, or for that matter with other academic disciplines, has not so far taken place. In this chapter we will consider the nature of socio-legal research, especially as it has developed in the UK, and the challenges of working in an interdisciplinary field. We will then introduce some general debates in sociology about method and show how these are relevant to studying sociolegal topics. We will conclude this chapter by referring to the Nuffield Foundation Inquiry on Empirical Research in Law which expresses concern for the ‘dwindling of capacity to undertake rigorous empirical research in law’. We will argue that to create a sound foundation for empirical research into law we need to introduce research methods and project work into the undergraduate law school curriculum, despite the current pressures in the direction of a narrow degree based almost entirely on studying legal rules

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