On the Politics of Legal Methodology
| Author | Hans-W. Micklitz |
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| Published date | 01 December 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1402100401 |
| Subject Matter | Guest Editorial |
21 MJ 4 (2014) 589
GUEST EDITORIAL
ON THE POLITICS OF LEGAL METHODOLOGY
H-W. M*
§1. IN TRODUC TION
In the last couple of years the market for academ ic legal books and law journals has been
ooded with contributions on legal methodolog y. Most of them are wr itten in English.1
is does not mean that the debate is bound to the common law, or that only English
publishing houses and Eng lish journals are involved. e choice of language is nothing
more than a further proof that English has long had the status of lingua franca in our
academic discourse.
e projects s ailing under the ag of legal met hodology are ranging far a nd wide, from
more theoretical conceptua l re ections on whether law is a science and, if so, what k ind
of science,
2
to the in uence of law and economics on legal doctrine
3
and the new wave
of comparative law
4
towards Gesetzgebungslehre,
5
the art of legislation.
6
is is indicative
* Professor of Economic Law, European University Institute, Florence Italy. I would like to thank my
colleague a nd friend Rob van Gestel, Professor at Ti lburg University, for years of discus sion on legal
methodology, wit hout which I could not have written t his editorial.
1 ere are exceptions , see the specia l issues in 209 Archiv für Civilisti sche Praxis 1 (2009); K. Riesen huber,
Riesenhube r, Europäische Methoden lehre, Handbuch für Ausbildu ng und Praxis, Methodenfrag en des
Europarechts – fü r Ausbildung und Praxi s (3rd edition, C.H. B eck, 2014).
2 M. van Hoecke (ed.), Methodolog ies of Legal Res earch: Which Kin d of Method for What Ki nd of Disciplin e
(Hart, 2011); J. Smits, e mind and metho d of the legal academic (Edwa rd Elgar, 2012); R. van Gestel
and H.-W. Micklitz, ‘W hy Methods Matter in Europ ean Legal Scholarsh ip’, 20European Law Journal
(2014), p.292–316.
3 Today mainly law and econom ics, behavioura l economics, in the 1970s socio-lega l research. See for
instance T. Ulen, ‘A Nobel Priz e in Legal Science: eory, Empirica l Work, and the Scienti c Method
in the Study of Law’, 4 U. Ill . L. Rev. (2002), p.875.
4 M. Siems, Comparative law (Ca mbri dge Univ ers ity Pre ss, 2014); and M . Ad ams and D. He irb aut (e ds. ), e
Method and Culture of C omparative Law, Essays in Honour of Marc van Ho ecke (Hart Publis hing, 2014).
5 G.F. Schuppert, Governance und Rechtset zung, Grundfrag en einer moder nen Regelungswi ssenscha
(Nomos, 2010).
6 S. Emenegger, Gesetzgebungskunst: Gute Gesetzgebung als Gegenstand einer legislativen
Methodenbewegung in der Rechtswissenscha um 1900 – Zur Geschichte der Ges etzgebungslehre
(Grundlagen De r Rechtswissens cha ) (Mohr Siebeck, 2 006).
To continue reading
Request your trial