730-451 Socio-Legal Research

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Credit Points

Prerequisites

Torts and the Process of Law; History and Philosophy of Law. Students may find it advantageous to be studying, or to have studied, Principles of Labour Law or Family Law.

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Subject Description

Social science approaches to law; the relationship between different theoretical frameworks and research questions; identifying socio-legal research questions; the range of research methods; ethical issues in socio-legal research; linking research findings to theoretical debates; analysing good examples of socio-legal research; critical analysis of major interdisciplinary studies; research design and execution. For part of the course students will work in small groups to develop socio-legal research questions and methods for the research assignment, to be undertaken individually or in groups in second semester.

Assessment

(1) Class Paper 1000-1500 words worth (10%) of final mark.

(2) Journal 1000-1500 words of Research Project progress, documenting and reflecting on the design and execution of the project, worth (10%) of the final mark.

(3) Research Paper (8000 words per student) worth (80%).of the final mark.

Prescribed Texts

Materials will be issued by the Law School.

• G Allen and C Skinner (eds), Handbook for Research Students in the Social Sciences. Falmer Press, London, 1991.