The book Contextualising Legal Research. A Methodological Guide by authors Sanne Taekema, Professor of Jurisprudence at Erasmus School of Law, and Wibren van der Burg, Professor of Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory at Erasmus School of Law, offers a guide for master's students, PhD candidates and early-stage researchers on how to design and conduct legal research. It discusses core topics such as formulating research questions, methods, theoretical frameworks, evaluations and recommendations. We sat down with the authors to discuss the book's formation and application.
The central idea is that legal scholarship relies on the interpretive and argumentative methods of the humanities, but also requires empirical input due to its focus on social reality. "The core of doctrinal research is the collection and interpretation of texts. However, in order to interpret those texts and present applicable law as a coherent system, you need to include contexts", Taekema and Van der Burg explain. Therefore, the authors advocate a combination of doctrinal research, empirical research and theoretical-normative disciplines. They show that contextualising doctrinal research is a gradual process: "Sometimes researchers only need to incorporate the output of other disciplines into their research, while in other cases the research questions lead to interdisciplinary research."
That sounds quite theoretical. What is in it for students and researchers?
"Methodology of research is indeed not an easy subject. That is precisely why we tried to write a practically useful manual for it. It is first and foremost a teaching book for master's students and early-stage researchers. It stems partly from the research skills seminars to which I contribute in five Erasmus School of Law masters, at Tax Law and at our own Law and Markets department. Many draft chapters have also been used in those masters in recent years. Moreover, Taekema has used parts of them in the Erasmus Graduate School of Law, when teaching PhD candidates. This has allowed us to test and further develop our ideas. We have also taught methodology at other universities, such as London, Leuven and Zagreb. We were also able to incorporate those experiences", Van der Burg answers.
How does this book differ from others?
"Most books on legal research methods focus on legal practice and look at interpretation and sources for judges and lawyers. Research-oriented books usually focus on broader interdisciplinary or social science research. Instead, we show how to connect to other disciplines from classical doctrinal methods. We argue that doctrinal research is all about interpretation and reconstruction: doing research is more than just describing the current law. For us, it is about enriching legal research. Not everyone needs to do fully interdisciplinary research using non-legal methods. Sometimes it is enough to use existing insights from other disciplines", Taekema explains.
Is it a teaching book only?
"With this book, we also hope to contribute to the scholarly debate on research methodology. When you write texts for educational purposes, it forces you to be clear and complete. We have already published many articles on methodology, but about some topics we had not yet written anything. We came to new insights because we now had to do so and make it a coherent and complete story. A very concrete example is the question we got from Rebecca about whether research questions should be closed or open - a question every method teacher will recognise. We thought about that and then came to surprising answers, even for us", Van der Burg says.
Has writing this book also had an impact on your own research?
Taekema looks back on her own dissertation: "I think I would have written a completely different first chapter now. Working on this book, and teaching about it, has made me much more aware of the importance of making choices in research. Choices that, of course, you have to be able to justify. That is also one of the key messages of the book: legal research can be approached in different ways, as long as you can explain why your approach fits your research questions."
Insights from a PhD Candidate
One of the PhD candidates in private law, Rebecca Bosch, has read the entire book and provided critical comments. This led to many changes. Rebecca, how did you benefit from this book in your own research?
"I gladly concur with Taekema's comment. The book provides a clear picture of the different choices you can make in your research. For example, consider to what extent you incorporate another discipline in your research. Contrary to other books and articles on methodology, this book offers enough tools to apply the information immediately in your research. This is partly because of the many examples. This book can greatly improve the quality of your research", Bosch concludes.
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