Edward Elgar Publishing The Politics of European Legal Research: Behind the Method (Elgar Studies in Legal Research Methods)

Making a key contribution to the contemporary debate about methods in European legal research, this comprehensive book looks behind different methodologies to explore the institutional, disciplinary, and political conflicts that shape questions of ‘method’ or ‘approach’ in European legal scholarship. Offering a new perspective on the underlying politics of method, it identifies four core dimensions of methodological struggle in legal research – the politics of questions, the politics of answers, the politics of legal audiences, and the politics of the concept of law. Chapters explore how methodological choices impact the questions legal scholars ask, the answers they seek, the audiences for and to whom they speak, and ultimately their understanding of the legal and the social world. Leading contributors uncover the framing discourses, institutional inertias, and political pressures that shape research questions, while assessing the effects of importing social science methods into legal research, and how audiences of legal research and education shape our understanding of law. Concluding with a reflection on the continued, if qualified, relevance of formal doctrinal methods for European legal research, this thought-provoking book will be a key resource for students and scholars of law and politics, research methods and European law. Review ‘This book illustrates that the European methodological strife is in full swing, that the stakes are as high as we secretly suspected, and that everyone debates with their fingers crossed. If there will be a happy ending to it, this will be largely due to the sincere effort of the editors and the contributors.’ -- Urska Sadl, European University Institute, Italy ‘This thrilling and timely book digs deep into the current crises of European legal research―its methods, aims, and effects. Striving for greater self-awareness and offering a variety of perspectives on legal thought (philosophy, pedagogy, politics, and more), the chapters address the crucial questions: Who or what is legal research for? What do its conventional iterations accomplish (and not)? Through what venues of critical self-inquiry might legal research open up more creative lines of intellectual and political advent? Focused throughout on the politics of legal research, the chapters are intellectually scrupulous, methodologically astute, and invariably insightful.’ -- Pierre Schlag, University of Colorado, US ‘Too often European legal scholars portray methodological questions as neutral, objective, and apolitical. The Politics of European Legal Research instead shows that methodological choices are inseparable from battles within legal academia around prestige, ideology, and power.’ -- Fernanda G. Nicola, Washington College of Law, American University, US About the Author Edited by Marija Bartl, Professor of Transnational Private Law, Amsterdam School of Law, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Jessica C. Lawrence, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Essex, UK