Quantitative legal research in Germany

• Main Author: HARTUNG, Dirk
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Legal Writing and Research; Science and Technology Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/4530; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/6488/viewcontent/_9781788972819.00018.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This chapter positions quantitative legal research in Germany, where it is a relatively new discipline, within the country’s greater legal academic landscape. The early stage of the discipline makes Germany particularly interesting for international scholars and open to a global academic dialogue. In addition, as the discipline is still young, the discourse is still open to influence from a global community. The following discussion argues for better access to legal data and tries to save researchers from pitfalls such as high fees for or dubious providers of legal data. It encourages the compilation of comprehensive, rich, well-documented and open source datasets. It suggests methods from data mining, text analytics and network science for their analysis. Finally, the chapter describes possible audiences both within and outside the academic realm, strongly arguing for an interdisciplinary approach explicitly open to doctrinal legal scholars.