Crijns, Jan H.; Giesen, Ivo; Voermans, Wim --- "A traditional lawyer’s perspective on the importance of ELS for legal scholarship" [2018] ELECD 481; in van Boom, H. Willem; Desmet, Pieter; Mascini, Peter (eds), "Empirical Legal Research in Action" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 227

Book Title: Empirical Legal Research in Action

Editor(s): van Boom, H. Willem; Desmet, Pieter; Mascini, Peter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785362743

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: A traditional lawyer’s perspective on the importance of ELS for legal scholarship

Author(s): Crijns, Jan H.; Giesen, Ivo; Voermans, Wim

Number of pages: 36

Abstract/Description:

This chapter addresses the possible contributions and limitations of empirical research for legal research in the domains of private law, criminal law and constitutional and administrative law. The authors do this to gain a better insight in the nature of legal research and – based on that – to try to inspire legal scholars to embrace and possibly engage in empirical research themselves, to enrich their work. After a general introduction, some of the peculiarities of legal research are dealt with, offering a possible explanation for the seemingly slow reception of empirical scholarship within legal research. Next, the possibilities and the pros and cons of empirical research methods for the three legal domains covered are dealt with. The chapter takes a special look at the empirical research methods that are dealt with elsewhere in this volume and discusses the possibilities and limitations of these methods for legal research in the three legal domains covered.