Research Design for Empirical Legal Studies
Empirical legal studies have become popular in the US and are now spreading to non-US law faculties as well. Usually the term applies to analyses of quantitative data and the researcher relies on data collected by others. But the term "empirical" properly encompasses both qualitative and quantiative data, including interviews, legal documents, survey research and experimental results. Analysts interested in using such data need to understand how they were collected, in order to decide what data can appropriately be used to answer different kinds of questions. Often to answer the questions of interest, a researcher needs to collect new data. This seminar will introduce students to the wide range of research methods that can be used to answer empirical questions, provide a framework for choosing among methods, and explain how to use the methods.