The use of sociological ideas

by practicing and academic

lawyers

A socio-legal study by Julia,

Michael, Tanya and Tehseen
 Overview
 Interviewed 4 practicing and 4 academic
lawyers
 General aim: Contributing to the literature
on the emerging field of socio-legal
studies (Publication forthcoming)
 Snowball sampling
 Semi-structured interviews
 Diversity of samples
 Question 1
 “What path did you follow to get to your
present legal career?”
 “Why did you choose to go to academia
rather than practice (or vice versa)”
 “What field of law did you chose to
specialise in and why”
 Findings
 All took law undergraduate degrees
 Apart from A4, all initially had the
intention to practice
 P4 and A4 went back into teaching having
reached all they could in practice
 Question 2
 “What do you think should be the major
developments in law over the next few
years”
 “What do you think are currently the most
contentious issues in the substantive law
and how do you think law should develop
in this area”
 “What developments do you hope to see
in this area”
 Findings
 Analysis according to 4 criteria:
 Interpretation of “law”
 Degree of specificity
 Degree of normativity
 Whether elaboration needed prompting

 No clear cut distinction between academics and

practitioners
 Academics less broad in their answers
 Seemed that academic lawyers spoke less
broadly than profesionnals
 Question 3
 “How do you think the teaching of law has
developed over the last few years”
 “How do you think it should change over
the next few years”
 Findings
 Academics focussed on realities of
teaching
 Practitioners talked about teaching
preparation for reality of working
 Academics and Practitioners all recognised
importance of broader social issues
concerning the operation of law
 Practitioners in the social field brought up
socio-legal issues before we mentioned it
 Question 4
 “Are you familiar with the field of socio-
legal studies at all?”
 “What do you think about it?”
 “Does it have a place in legal analysis /
development?”
 “Should it be included in the teaching of
law?”
 Findings
 Academics had all heard of it, only half of
the professionals had
 All thought it was an important subject
 Methodological validity?
 Conclusions
 Null hypothesis supported
 Difference in areas participants talked about but
similarly concerned with sociological issues

 Structure worked really well

 Recording method (Handwritten v Recording)
 Consistency between interviewers
 More background research needed
 Future research
 More detailed research
 Larger pool to investigate intricacies of
differences further
Last words and self-affirmations

“I think [socio-legal studies] should be

[included in all teaching of the law]. But,
by doing that, you have to bear in mind
that people are frightened of subjects that
questions the status quo. And I think if the
social legal studies are taught well, it
questions lots of the status quo.”