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Research Design for Empirical Legal and Socio-Legal Studies (LAW-DS-RESDES-24)

LAW-DS-RESDES-24


Department LAW
Course category LAW Seminar - 6 credits
Course type Seminar
Academic year 2024-2025
Term 1ST TERM
Credits 6 (EUI Law credits)
Professors
Contact Law Department administration,
  Course materials
Sessions

07/10/2024 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

11/10/2024 11:00-13:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

14/10/2024 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

18/10/2024 11:00-13:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

21/10/2024 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

25/10/2024 11:00-13:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

28/10/2024 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

04/11/2024 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

11/11/2024 14:00-16:00 @ Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati

Description

Empirical legal studies have become popular across the legal academy. Often legal empiricists limit themselves to analyses of quantitative data and rely on data collected by others.  However, the term "empirical" properly encompasses qualitative as well as quantitative data, including information derived from interviews, legal documents, survey research and experiments.  Moreover, many quantitative datasets were derived from qualitative data collection.  Analysts interested in using such data should understand how they were collected, in order to decide what data are best suited to answering different kinds of questions.  The best way to develop an understanding of the challenges posed by empirical research design is to develop such a design oneself. 

This seminar will introduce students to the wide range of research methods that can be used to answer empirical questions, provide a framework for selecting from a methodological menu, and describe how to apply the most frequently used methods.  The course is designed for students who expect to conduct an empirical study sometime soon. It can also provide useful background for those who may never conduct their own empirical study but will have reason to refer to such studies in their scholarship or policy work.

The seminar will comprise discussions of research principles, approaches, and methods and presentations of projects utilizing different approaches. In the last sessions of the quarter, everyone will present his or her preliminary research design for review and comment.

Work required for credits
Attendance is the only requirement. However, the idea is to develop a research proposal for an empirical legal or socio-legal study, either a master’s thesis, doctoral dissertation or other course project.  The length of the research proposal will depend on what type of project you propose but generally proposals are around 8-10 pages in length. In addition, there are two ungraded writing assignments.

Reading list:
https://readinglist.eui.eu/leganto/public/39EUI_INST/lists/2242261840008406?auth=SAML&idpCode=SAML_LEGANTO 


First, Second & Third Term: registration from 26 to 30 September 2024
 

Register for this course

Page last updated on 05 September 2023

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