LAW50030

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the module the students should be able to: - read academic articles and books with a new appreciation of their methods and approaches; conduct literature reviews; develop their own research questions, with an appreciation of the contribution the answer will make to their field / discipline; appreciate the different methods required to answer different types of research methods; contrast some of the main approaches to research in law, in particular doctrinal, comparative and socio-legal / empirical legal studies, historical and normative. Within the broad fields of socio-legal / empirical legal studies, a range of social science methods will be introduced, pointing students to further trainings that are available should they decide to go further and develop these skills. More concretely, students will understand the available research materials available for desk based research; understand the purposes and application of bibliographic software; consider the ethical dimensions of their research; and understand the elements of research design for research proposals and their own workplans.

Indicative Module Content:

The module is constituted by a series of seminars, including guest seminars, showcasing the diversity of approaches and methods in legal research:
Academic literacy
Literature reviews and assessing academic contribution
Diverse approaches to and in legal research - doctrinal, comparative, sociolegal / empirical, historical and normative
Honing research questions in legal research and understanding the methods needed to answer them
Research design, justification, transparency and limitations - the difference between methodology and methods
Doctrinal legal research
Normative legal research
Comparative legal research
Introduction to some methods in sociolegal/empirical legal research
Research Ethics
Research design for funding applications
Academic literature
Legal Writing and Citation practices

Student Effort Hours:

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

Approaches include seminars, active/task-based learning; group work; critical writing; reflective learning

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.

Module Requisites and Incompatibles

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy

 

Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

This module is assessed by a combination of pieces of assessment. Feedback will be provided in the form of individual feedback within 20 working days of the submission date. Students may request a meeting with the module coordinator to obtain individual feedback on their assessments. Peer feedback will be provided on the research design outlines.

Readings and Useful Materials
Reading Lists will be provided on a weekly basis. Some invited speakers will be discussing the methods used in particular pieces of research, so the readings will include those selected articles, as well as pieces on the particular approaches / methods. You may also wish to identify key contributions in your own field of research, and explore the methodology and methods of those pieces of scholarship.

Some useful general works specifically on writing a PhD include:
Patrick Dunleavy Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Dissertation (Palgrave, 2003)
Caroline Morris & Cain Murphy Getting a PhD in Law (Hart, Oxford, 2011)
Estelle Phillips & Colin Johnson How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors (Open University Press, 7th ed, 2022)

There are many general works on legal research methods generally and in particular subfields. You are expected to consult these works in as part of your own doctoral work:
Kirsten McConnachie, Marc Mason, Naomi Creutzfeldt (eds) Routledge Handbook of Socio-Legal Theory and Methods (Routledge 2019)
Rossana Deplano, Giulia Gentile, Luigi Lonardo, Tobias Nowak, Interdisciplinary Research Methods in EU Law: A Handbook (Elgar 2024)
Bård A. Andreassen, Claire Methven O’Brien, Hans-Otto Sano Research Methods in Human Rights (Elgar 2024)
Sanne Taekema and Wibren van der Burg Contextualising Legal Research: A Methodological Guide (Elgar 2024)
Simon Halliday & Patrick Schmidt Conducting Law & Society Research: Reflections on Methods and Practices (CUP, 2009). (This is a set of interviews with leading sociolegal scholars on their seminal works.)
Peter Cane & Herbert Kritzer The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research (OUP 2010)

In you are doing empirical research, classic general texts on research methods in the social sciences is Tom Clark, Liam Foster, Luke Sloan, and Alan Bryman Bryman's Social Research Methods (6th edition 2021 OUP).
Another general text is
John Gerring, Social Science Methodology: A Unified Framework.(CUP). Chs. 8 and 10. (ebook available from UCD library)

Online Resources
If you find further useful online resources during the course, please do share them!
Leiden University hosts an online portal that supports the empirical legal and sociolegal scholarship, with a broad range of empirical research methods, tools, and tips.
https://www.leidenlawmethodsportal.nl/

The Centre for Sociolegal Studies at the University of Oxford has a great podcast on methods:
https://frontiers.csls.ox.ac.uk/category/talking-about-methods/#continue

In some subfields, there are ‘debate maps’ to allow you to track current legal debates. For instance:
https://opil.ouplaw.com/page/214/mapping-the-debate-with-oxford-public-international-law4

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.