Routledge Handbook of Socio-Legal Theory and Methods

Drawing on a range of approaches from the social sciences and humanities, this handbook explores theoretical and empirical perspectives that address the articulation of law in society, and the social character of the rule of law.

The vast field of socio-legal studies provides multiple lenses through which law can be considered. Rather than seeking to define the field of socio-legal studies, this book takes up the experiences of researchers within the field. First-hand accounts of socio-legal research projects allow the reader to engage with diverse theoretical and methodological approaches within this fluid interdisciplinary area. The book provides a rich resource for those interested in deepening their understanding of the variety of theories and methods available when law is studied in its broadest social context, as well as setting those within the history of the socio-legal movement. The chapters consider multiple disciplinary lenses ? including feminism, anthropology and sociology ? as well as a variety of methodologies, including: narrative, visual and spatial, psychological, economic and epidemiological approaches. Moreover, these are applied in a range of substantive contexts such as online hate speech, environmental law, biotechnology, research in post-conflict situations, race and LGBT+ lawyers.

The handbook brings together younger contributors and some of the best-known names in the socio-legal field. It offers a fresh perspective on the past, present and future of sociolegal studies that will appeal to students and scholars with relevant interests in a range of subjects, including law, sociology and politics.

Chapter 7 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Approaching socio-legal studies

Chapter 1 Socio-Legal Theory and Methods: Introduction

Naomi Creutzfeldt, Marc Mason, Kirsten McConnachie

Chapter 2 Traditions of Studying the Social and the Legal: Building Interdisciplinary Bridges

Naomi Creutzfeldt, University of Westminster

Chapter 3 Usesand Abuses of Socio-Legal Methods

Carrie Menkel-Meadow, UC Irvine School of Law, USA

Chapter 4 The why and how to of conducting a socio-legal research project

Lisa Webley, University of Birmingham

Chapter 5 Writing Beyond Distinctions

Andreas Philioppopoulous - Mihalopoulus, University of Westminster

Chapter 6 Doing Critical Socio-Legal Studies

Margaret Davies, Flinders University, Australia

Chapter 7 "Indefensible and irresponsible": Interdisciplinarity, truth and #reviewer2

Dave Cowan, University of Bristol and Emilie Cloatre, University of Kent

Chapter 8 Ethical Awareness and Socio-legal Research in the UK

Victoria Brooks, University of Westminster

Chapter 9 On objectivity and staying ‘native’: Researching LGBTQI+ lawyers as a queer lawyer

MarcMason, University of Westminster

Chapter 10 Impact, policy and public engagement

Kath Murray, University of Edinburgh

Disciplinary and theoretical relationships

Chapter 11 Law and sociology

Sharyn Roach Anleu & Kathy Mack, Flinders University, Australia

Chapter 12 Social psychology and law

Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff, Washington University School of Law

Chapter 13 A socio-legal approach to law and economics

Richard Craven, University of Leicester

Chapter 14 Law and Anthropology

Kirsten McConnachie, University of East Anglia

Chapter 15 Doing "Law in/and Development": Theoretical, Methodological and Ethical Reflections

Jenny Lander, De Montford University

Chapter 16 Qualitative Data and the Challenges of Interpretation in Transitional Justice Research

Briony Jones, University of Warwick

Chapter 17 Reading law spatially

Antonia Layard, University of Bristol

Chapter 18 Legal Concepts in Flux: The Social Construction of Legal Meaning

Maayan Ravid & Alice Schneider, University of Oxford

Chapter 19 Feminist Approaches to Socio-Legal Studies

Rosemary Hunter, University of Kent

Chapter 20 Intersectionality as Theory and Method: Human Rights’ Policy and Adjudication

Charlotte Skeet, University of Sussex

Methodological choices

Chapter 21 Encountering the Archive: Researching Race, Racialisation and the Death Penalty in England and Wales, 1900-65

Lizzie Seal and Alexa Neale, University of Sussex

Chapter 22 Law, the Environment and Narrative Storytelling

Angus Nurse, Middlesex University

Chapter 23 Legal Aesthetics as Visual Method

Thomas Giddens, St Mary’s University, Twickenham

Chapter 24 A Content Analysis of Judicial Decision-Making

Richard Kirkham, University of Sheffield and Elizabeth A. O’Loughlin, City University of London

Chapter 25 Intellectual Property, Biotechnology and Process Tracing: Applying Political Research Methods to Legal Study

Benjamin Farrand, University of Warwick

Chapter 26 Experiments in Criminal Justice Contexts

Ben Bradford and Julia Jesberg, University College London

Chapter 27 Legal epidemiology, evidence-informed law and administrative data: new frontiers in the study of family justice

Matthew Jay, University College London

Chapter 28 Online hatespeech

Nicole Stremlau University of Johannesburg & University of Oxford; Iginio Gagliardone, University of Oxford & University of Witwatersrand

Naomi Creutzfeldt and Marc Mason are based in the law school at the University of Westminster; Kirsten McConnachie is based in the law school at the University of East Anglia