Abstract
Interdisciplinary legal research, in which non-legal data are combined with legal data, is a fairly new branch of legal scholarship in the Netherlands. Although it improves the possibilities to measure the effectiveness of legal instruments, it also raises numerous methodological questions, such as a lack of matching empirical data and the translation of legal concepts in socio-empirical terms. Both the pros and cons of the interdisciplinary research method will be addressed and illustrated on the basis of family law research which incorporates socio-empirical data. There are, however, no simple solutions to the pitfalls, but to create awareness of the potential problems may contribute to a better research design and, in the end, to better results.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 147-162 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Utrecht Law Review |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Keywords
- interdisciplinary research
- legal methodology
- empirical data
- family law