The Netherlands Academy for Empirical Legal Studies (ELS Academy) serves as a platform that brings together (aspiring) empirical legal scholars from all universities in the Netherlands. Embodying a national collaboration in the field of empirical legal studies in the context of the sector plan for the legal discipline, the ELS Academy is focused on educating and supporting researchers who are interested in empirically exploring questions that are legally relevant.
Goal
The goal of the ELS Academy is twofold. On the one hand, the focus is on bringing together empirical legal scholars and building an empirical legal studies community in the Netherlands. On the other hand, the ELS Academy pools resources in the field of empirical legal studies and makes them easily accessible at the service of individual scholars and research groups at the various law schools in the Netherlands.
Empirical Legal Studies is one of the legal science themes that the multi-year Law Sector Plan focuses on, as part of the broader Sector Plan Social Sciences and Humanities. The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has provided funding. In the field of empirical legal studies, a national collaboration exists that is coordinated by the five law schools of Leiden University, VU Amsterdam, Utrecht University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and University of Groningen, which all focus on empirical legal studies within the context of the Law Sector Plan.