Socio-legal researchers increasingly recognise the need to employ a wide variety of methods in studying law and legal phenomena, and the need to be informed by an understanding of debates about theory and method in mainstream social science. The papers in this volume illustrate how a range of topics, including EU law, ombudsmen, judges, lawyers, Shariah Councils and the quality assurance industry can be researched from a socio-legal perspective. The objective of the collection is to show how different methods can be used in researching law and legal phenomena, how methodological issues and debates in sociology are relevant to the study of law, and the importance of the debate between "structural" and "action" traditions in researching law. It also approaches the methodological problem of how sociology of law can address the content of legal practice from a variety of perspectives and discusses the relationship between pure and applied research. The editors provide a critical introduction to each of the six sections, and a general introduction on law, sociology and method.
The collection will provide an invaluable resource for socio-legal researchers, law school researchers and postgraduates.
Introduction
Reza Banakar and Max Travers
1. Law, Sociology and Method
Reza Banakar and Max Travers
SECTION 1: METHOD VERSUS METHODOLOGY
Introduction to Section One
Reza Banakar and Max Travers
2. Ethnography and Socio-Legal Research
John Flood
3. Systems Theory and Qualitative Socio-legal Research
Klaus A Ziegert
SECTION 2: ETHNOGRAPHY AND LAW
Introduction to Section Two
Reza Banakar and Max Travers
4. Courses of Mobilisation: Writing systematic micro-histories of legal discourse
Thomas Scheffer
5. "Standpoint", "Difference" and Feminist Research
Samia Banio
6. Researching Women's Legal Experiences in Botswana: An anthropological perspective
Anne Griffiths
SECTION 3: STUDYING LEGAL TEXTS
Introduction to Section Three
Reza Banakar and Max Travers
7. Studying Cases Empirically: A sociological method for studying discrimination cases in Sweden
Reza Banakar
8. Researching Ombudsmen
Mary Seneviratne
9. Discourse Analysis and the Implementation of a European Directive
Bettina Lange
SECTION 4: STRUCTURAL APPROACHES
Introduction to Section Four
Reza Banakar and Max Travers
10. How to Study the Social and Legal Position of Danish Judges
Ole Hammerslev
11: Changing Maps: Empirical legal autopoesis
John Paterson and Gunther Teubner
SECTION 5: STUDYING LEGAL CULTURES
Introduction to Section Five
Reza Banakar and Max Travers
12. Doing Research into Comparative Criminal Justice
David Nelken
13. Researching Legal Culture in Russia
Marina Kurkchiyan
SECTION 6: SOCIO-LEGAL RESEARCH IN THE UK
Introduction to Section Six
Reza Banakar and Max Travers
14. Constructing a Typology of Administrative Grievances
Michael Adler
15. The Formalisation of Research Ethics
Andrew Boon
16. Evaluation Research and Legal Services
Max Travers
