Research Methods in Law. By D. Watkins and M. Burton (editors). London: Routledge, 2013. 160 pp. $55 paperback.

Abstract

Research Methods in Law. By D. Watkins and M. Burton (editors). London: Routledge, 2013. 160 pp. $55 paperback.This volume outlines key approaches to legal research. It is aimed toward PhD and Master of Laws students, legal researchers, as well as graduate students in sociolegal studies. One goal of volume is to foster incorporation of sociological and social science research designs and techniques into and sociolegal studies. As Watkins and Burton put it in introduction, the researcher must appre- ciate that operates within distinctive legal culture of each jurisdiction, a culture that researcher will need to fully engage with in course of her project (p. 5). Research Methods in Law pushes students of to integrate multiple data production and analysis approaches.Terry Hutchinson reviews research in an early chapter. As Hutchinson puts it, doctrinal research lies at heart of any lawyer's task because it is research process used to identify, analyze and synthesize content of law (p. 9). Meticulous cataloguing of legislation and case is essential for practitioner and scholar alike. The approach assumes that is made up of rules, principles, and precedents that must be known, and that these rules, principles, and precedents are a coherent system.In another chapter, Fiona Cownie and Anthony Bradney contend that sociolegal studies have emerged as a challenge to understandings of and legal methods. The point of sociolegal research is to understand not just letter of law, but also social and political context in which it exists. These authors discuss range of quantitative and qualitative methods found in sociology and other disciplines that can be used in sociolegal studies. A major difference between research and sociolegal research is not only techniques used to produce and analyze data, but underlying understanding of law. Sociolegal scholars do not limit themselves to tracing rules, principles, and precedents found in legislation and case law.The remaining chapters cover specific topics and research approaches. Mandy Burton examines research techniques for investigating decisionmaking of judges and juries. Steven Cammiss and Dawn Watkins reflect on legal research in humanities and role of historical and narrative inquiry in sociolegal studies. Panu Minkkinen offers a chapter on critical legal studies and critical legal method as an attitude, one that continually fosters critique not only of itself but theory as well as research design and technique.Philip Handler makes a distinction between internal and exter- nal legal history, former being aligned with research and latter being a part of sociolegal studies. …