Course no. II: Basic course in different legal scientific methods

9-12 June 2020 - Department of Law, Aarhus University

Oplysninger om arrangementet

Tidspunkt

tirsdag 9. juni 2020, kl. 11:00 - fredag 12. juni 2020, kl. 14:00

Sted

Building 1410, Room 247. Department of Law, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 16, 8000 Aarhus C

Purpose      

The idea behind this course is to give the PhD fellows knowledge of useful methods related to legal research. The purpose of the course is to focus on the necessity of a good connection between your research aims, your research questions, and your sources and your methods.

The course will be focused on designs, theories and methods. We will cover all the main methods – legal dogmatic, comparative legal methods, legal sociology, fieldwork in law, and theories of legal pluralism and governance theories. Some scholars have highlighted the potential for incoherence in research based on legal pluralism, whereas others have pointed out the need for legal pluralism as part of a realistic description of the current legal situation. We will include this issue in the course and also present and discuss the special challenges related to empirical research, interdisciplinary approaches and different legal methodologies.

Programme

Course responsible

Professor Bettina Lemann Kristiansen, Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, and professor Sten Schaumburg-Müller, SDU

Participants’ preparation

You will have to send in two papers in English.

Assignment no. 1: Please, send in a short paper (not more than 2 A4 Page) in which you explain how you are working on ensuring a connection between your research questions and your choice of methodologies. Please also explain why you are not using some of the other methods that are mentioned in the programme for this course. Give a brief consideration on each method, and indicate why you think that it may be relevant or irrelevant in your research project, and which difficulties – if any – you foresee. You are most welcome to end up with questions that you hope will be answered during the course.

Assignment no. 2: Please, make a brief summary ( not more than 1 A4 page) of a text on legal research methodology and preferably – but not necessarily – something you have used or have considered using in your dissertation work. In your paper you will have to give an assessment of its usefulness (or lack of it) in relation to your project.

The assignments should be send to cita@law.au.dk not later than 25 May 2020 at 12:00 under the heading “PhD course June 2020”. Remember to indicate your name on the papers.

ECTS

The course is included in the mandatory course package for PhD fellows at the Department of Law, Aarhus BSS, AU, where there is an overall credit. For other participants, the credit is 5 ECTS.

Language

English, if there are participants who are not familiar with Danish

Registration fee

DKK 1,500 (covers all meals). Link for payment will open later.

Registration                    

No later than 20 May 2020 – Please send an email to course responsible PhD secretary Cita Dyveke Kristensen (cita@law.au.dk)

Number of participants

A maximum of 20 people