Research methods between legal doctrine and data science
Large-scale case law research is becoming increasingly attractive with the digital availability of case law. At the same time, this development warrants more attention to the methodological justification of case law analysis. A new book edited by Paul Verbruggen collects important methodological lessons for this type of research.
Legal practitioners and legal scholars devote a great deal of attention to providing insight into developments and patterns in case law. However, the question of how exactly they arrive at their insights and account for them takes them into less familiar territory. How do I collect case law? Which judgments do I select for analysis? How do I uncover a pattern?
How reliable are the insights found? What exactly is their relevance and significance? And how can software, artificial intelligence or other data science techniques help?
These are key questions in the book Methoden van systematische rechtspraakanalyse. Tussen juridische dogmatiek en data science (Methods of systematic judicial analysis. Between legal dogmatics and data science). The book is of interest to students, PhD students and more experienced legal scholars and practitioners. In addition to Paul Verbruggen the book holds contributions on case law analysis by Rob van Gestel, Eric Tjong Tjin Tai and Lianne Wijntjens.