A series of Socio-legal research training days is organised collaboratively by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), the Socio-Legal Studies Association and the British Library. The one-day events offer insights and shared experience in research methods and sources relevant to particular socio-legal topics, with presentation materials, discussion on best practice and networking opportunities at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Selected recordings from the events and pre-prints of articles developed from the presentations are available below.

See also the Legal Biography album on IALS Facebook and Law, Gender and Sexuality album on IALS Facebook

Further details, are available from the Events listing on the IALS website or contact ials.events@sas.ac.uk

Previous Workshops

Legal Biography - Socio-legal research National workshop

A national socio-legal training day on legal biography was organised by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, the British Library and the Socio-Legal Studies Association and held at IALS in May 2013. The national socio-legal training day proved to be very popular and successful with much discussion between the speakers and the attendees throughout the programme.

 

Journal of Law and Society Special Issue on Legal Life-Writing

Journal of Law and Society Special Issue on Legal Life-Writing developed from papers presented at the joint BL/IALS/SLSA socio-legal training day on Legal Biography is online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jols.2015.42.issue-1/issuetoc

Access IALS Library copy at http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b2134777~S6(Remote access is available via current IALS Library card for IALS staff, fellows and students, UofL postgraduate students , IALS Lib academic members on Wiley Online Library)

Guest editorial published in Legal Information Management - David Gee (Deputy Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies)

Extracts from the Programme

This socio-legal research training day in May 2014 on Law, Gender and Sexuality: sources and methods in socio-legal research, organised collaboratively by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), the Socio-Legal Studies Association and the British Library, drew attention to archives and their content that newcomers to the field may not be aware of and to consider the methodological and practical issues involved in analysing sources.

Programme details

Feminism and the Law:

Multi Collection Repositories:

Law and Same Sex Partnerships:

Legal Professions and Education:

  • The IALS Archives of Legal Education - Elizabeth Dawson (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies)
  • Researching the UK's first female law professor: thinking about gender, method and sources - Professor Fiona Cownie (Keele University School of Law)
  • On Researching Men, Masculinities and Law: The Examples of Fatherhood and the Legal profession - Professor Richard Collier (Professor of Law and Social Theory, Newcastle University)

Visual Sources & Methods in Law, Gender and Sexuality scholarship:

Sources and Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice

This socio-legal research training day in November 2015 on Sources and Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice, organised collaboratively by the British Library, the British Society of Criminology, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), and the Socio-Legal Studies Association drew attention to resources and research approaches that newcomers to the field may not be aware of and to consider the methodological and practical issues involved in analysing sources.

Programme details

Collections / Theoretical Approaches:

Official Records:

Crime Statistics and Quantitative Methods:

Qualitative and Mixed Methods: Texts and Case Studies

  • Discovering Sources for Researching Historical Public Reactions to the Death Penalty in Britain - Lizzie Seal (University of Sussex)
  • Unicorns and Urinals: Foucauldian Methodology and the Apparently Unimportant Minutiae of the Court Design Guides - Linda Mulcahy (London School of Economics) and Emma Rowden (University of Technology Syndey)
  • Quantity and Quality in Police Research: Making the Case for Case Studies - Ben Bowling (Kings College London)

Closing panel

  • Interrelation between Socio-legal Studies and Criminology - Gethin Rees (Newcastle University), Marian Duggan (University of Kent) and other speakers

Programme details

Socio-Legal Methods in International Law

  • Luis Eslava (University of Kent Law School) on “Ethnographic thinking in international Law”
  • Isobel Roele (Queen Mary University of London Law School): “How does the UN Security Council work? Beyond paper and procedure”
  • Emilie Cloatre (University of Kent Law School): “Actor-network theory, materialities and the study of international law”

Socio-Legal Sources of International Law

Socio-Legal Histories of International Law

Objects of International Law

  • Jessie Hohmann (Queen Mary University of London Law School): “Objects and material cultures of international law” 
  • Jonathan Sims (Content specialist for humanities and social sciences, British Library): “Looking beyond the sources of international law: inspiring and supporting research at the British Library”