Private Law methodologies seminar

The Edinburgh Centre for Private Law presents

Private Law methodologies seminar

A seminar for all members of the Subject Area and its research students led by Professor Andrew Simpson.  Drawing on the experience of members of the Subject Area, it would aim to develop a clearer understanding of the range of methodologies for research and scholarship in private law.

Private law scholarship might be seen as a nexus or meeting point of different methodological approaches. These may perhaps be discussed under the (sometimes overlapping) heads of research methodologies used by scholars, on the one hand, and legal methodologies used in argumentation and decision-making in the courts, on the other. First, research methodologies used by scholars in the exposition of private law and its development might – amongst other things – be doctrinal, comparative, policy-based, socio-legal, legal historical or draw on economic considerations. Second, legal methodologies used in argumentation and decision-making in the courts are likewise a critically important element in any legal culture. They tend, amongst other things, to draw upon and articulate hierarchies of sources within legal cultures, and also to consider how lawyers in particular cultures actually reason in practice. To be clear about what is meant here, it has been argued in the past by some comparatists that codified civilian traditions are more deductive in approach, relying on acts of subsumption in reasoning from norms to the resolution of particular disputes, whilst the common law tradition is seen as more inductive, reasoning by analogy from case to case. Whether the truth is this simple is, of course, another matter.

To what extent do such scholarly and practical methods influence us in our work? Would it help us to be more articulate about those methods? Is there a need for scholarly research methods to engage more with the methods used in argumentation in the courts, and vice versa?

It is hoped that this seminar will help members of the Private Law Subject Area to reflect on these and other related questions raised by the participants. The aim is to go beyond anecdotal references to the use of particular methodologies; it is to reflect critically on particular experiences of using different approaches. The seminar will be organised around themed presentations from members of the Subject Area.

• Professor Andrew Simpson and Dr John MacLeod: private law meets historical and comparative methodologies.
• Professor Andrew Steven: private law meets social policy and law reform.
• Professor David Fox and Professor Laura Macgregor: private law meets commercial history and practice.

 

This event is free and open to all but registration is required (link below).

Event Link

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