Rethinking Legal Scholarship
A Transatlantic Dialogue

Rethinking Legal Scholarship bridges the gap between American and European legal scholarship by looking at underlying methodological challenges.

Rob van Gestel (Edited by), Hans-W. Micklitz (Edited by), Edward L. Rubin (Edited by)

9781107578722, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 May 2018

557 pages, 13 tables
23 x 15.3 x 3 cm, 0.85 kg

Although American scholars sometimes consider European legal scholarship as old-fashioned and inward-looking and Europeans often perceive American legal scholarship as amateur social science, both traditions share a joint challenge. If legal scholarship becomes too much separated from practice, legal scholars will ultimately make themselves superfluous. If legal scholars, on the other hand, cannot explain to other disciplines what is academic about their research, which methodologies are typical, and what separates proper research from mediocre or poor research, they will probably end up in a similar situation. Therefore we need a debate on what unites legal academics on both sides of the Atlantic. Should legal scholarship aspire to the status of a science and gradually adopt more and more of the methods, (quality) standards, and practices of other (social) sciences? What sort of methods do we need to study law in its social context and how should legal scholarship deal with the challenges posed by globalization?

List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction Rob van Gestel, Hans-W. Micklitz and Edward L. Rubin
Part I. Where Is Legal Scholarship Headed in the New Legal World?: 1. Why we do what we do: comparing legal methods in five law schools through survey evidence Mathias M. Siems and Daithí Mac Síthigh
2. The jurist in a global age Neil Walker
3. Field, frame and focus: methodological issues in the new legal world Roger Brownsword
4. Transatlantic publication fashions: in search of quality and methodology in law journal articles Reza Dibadi
Part II. Should Doctrinal Legal Scholarship Be Abandoned?: 5. What is legal doctrine?: on the aims and methods of legal-dogmatic research Jan M. Smits
6. Making doctrine for European law Nils Jansen
7. A European advantage in legal scholarship? Hans-W. Micklitz
8. From coherence to effectiveness: a legal methodology for the modern world Edward L. Rubin
9. Ranking, peer review, bibliometrics and alternative ways to improve the quality of doctrinal legal scholarship Rob van Gestel
Part III. The Interaction of Legal Scholarship with Other Academic Disciplines: 10. The logic of the law: the analytical foundations of methodology Neil Komesar
11. The role of empirical legal studies in legal scholarship, legal education and policy making: a US perspective Deborah R. Hensler and Matthew A. Gasperetti
12. A behavioural law and economics perspective: between methodology and indeology when behavioural sciences meet law Orly Lobel
12. Freedom and method Paul Kahn
Index.

Subject Areas: Law: study & revision guides [LR], Settlement of international disputes [LBH], Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], Legal profession: general [LAT], Legal skills & practice [LAS], Law & society [LAQ], Comparative law [LAM], Systems of law [LAF], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA]