Aim of the course
Legal Research Methodology I shall introduce you to selected issues related to writing legal texts. It naturally follows on what you learnt in Research Methodology in the first semester, other topics will be covered in Legal Research Methodology II (especially case selection and comparative methods). Do not forget that there will be also optional courses (e.g. Research Skills I and II) that will focus on more practical matters.
We will delve into the following topics:
- How to structure a good research text (project) in law
- Empirical (namely quantitative) methods in law
- How to publish in law, overcoming the obstacles of the review process
- Strategies on searching sources
The main objective of the course is of course to support you in writing your PhD project and thesis, although we will obviously face the challenge of methodological pluralism that is logical due to different disciplines and topics of your theses.
Applied teaching methods and structure
A mix of approaches will be used, combining self-study preparation and online sessions (both lectures and workshops). Concrete structure of each session will be described in the outline of the course. I will try not to make the course too time demanding.
Organization of the sessions
All sessions will be held online in MS Teams on predetermined dates. The link to the team is: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3adY6eIbF9INMG7orJPGhLNCM2C6ASIcptav08HLXRZDs1%40thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=2714d260-48de-4e45-8d44-af78db4dc6de&tenantId=11904f23-f0db-4cdc-96f7-390bd55fcee8
Requirements
You are expected to ACTIVELY participate in all online sessions (one absention is allowed), prepare for the sessions by reading the provided sources and submit at least two out of three written assignments in sufficient quality (the first one is obligatory though, see Topic 1).
It is possible to replace one of the written assignments (not the obligatory one) with writing a review (1000 words) on the recommended book (Salsa Dancing) below.
Recommended reading
Compulsory readings for the course are (will be) listed in the concrete topics below.
If you wish to delve deeper into the writing and methodology issues and in a way that is easily understandable and fun to read, I can recommend you the following book:
LUKER, Kristin. Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-glut. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008. (I do not want to guide you to anything, but it is available e.g. on Zlibrary - https://1lib.cz/).