How to carry out interdisciplinary legal research some experiences with an interdisciplinary research method

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to share my experiences with interdisciplinary legal research. The term interdisciplinary is used in this contribution in relation to legal research which incorporates insights from non-legal disciplines.1 The aim is to provide some guidance as to how or how not to actually carry out interdisciplinary research. Which guidelines may be formulated from a legal methodological perspective in carrying out this type of research? Which problems might be encountered and in what ways might these be solved? The article departs from my research experience which concerns the interaction of family law and sociology. It is a revised contribution of a presentation held at the Utrecht University’s Symposium on Legal Methodology in 2010. Although this article does not provide a general review of interdisciplinary legal research methodology, the problems I have encountered are probably of a more general nature, at least as far as the combination of legal research with socio-empirical data is concerned. Some of the issues might well be applicable to other combinations of law & …, some of them may not, depending on the nature of the other discipline involved and the aim of the research.