Comparative Socio-Legal Research
Episode Description
In this episode of Talking about Methods, Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to Professor Ole Hammerslev (Sociology of Law Department, Lund University) and Professor Hilary Sommerlad (School of Law, Leeds University) about comparative socio-legal research.
Readings Recommended by Professors Ole Hammerslev & Hilary Sommerlad
Spradley, J. (1979), The Ethnographic Interview (Holt, Rinehart & Winston).
Geertz, C. (1973), The Interpretation of Cultures (Fontana Press).
Pue, W. (1998), Lawyering for a Fragmented World: Professionalism after God. 5 International Journal of the Legal Profession 125.
Abel, R.L. & Lewis, P.S.C. (1996), Lawyers in Society: An Overview (University of California Press).
Örücü, E. & Nelken, D., eds. (2007), Comparative Law: A Handbook (Hart Publishing).
Krause, M. (2016), Comparative research: beyond linear-casual explanation, in Deville, J. et. al., eds., Practising Comparison: Logics, Relations, Collaborations (Mattering Press).
Dezalay, Y. & Garth, B.G. (2021), Law as Reproduction and Revolution: An Interconnected History (University of California Press).
Hammerslev, O., & Sommerlad, H. (2021), Comparison as a socio-legal tool: A celebration of Reza Banakar and his work on methodology. 168(1) Retfærd. Nordic Journal of Law and Justice 39.
Abel, R., Sommerlad, H., Hammerslev, O. & Schultz, U., eds. (2022), Lawyers in 21st-Century Societies: Vol. 2: Comparisons and Theories (Hart Publishing).
Further Listening
Sarah Radcliffe on Decolonising Research Questions
About the Speakers
Professor Ole Hammerslev
Professor, Department of Sociology of Law, Lund University
Ole Hammerslev is a Professor at the Department of Sociology of Law, Lund University. Before his current post, he had been Professor in Sociology of Law, University of Southern Denmark and Professor II at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo. He holds a PhD in Sociology and an LLM from University of Copenhagen. Ole is one of the editors of the two-volume Lawyers in 21st-Century Societies. His other research areas include the pre-dispute phase, youth homeless and welfare state regulation in Denmark, legal aid in Scandinavia, and lawyers involved in interrelated state transformations.
Professor Hilary Sommerlad
Professor of Law and Social Justice, School of Law, University of Leeds
Hilary Sommerlad is Professor of Law & Social Justice, Leeds University. Her research focuses on the legal profession, including diversification and access to justice. She established and directed the Centre for Research into the Diversity in the Professions (Leeds Beckett University), the Centre for Professional Legal Education and Research (Birmingham University), and at Leeds co-directs a Legal Professions Research Group. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences; a founder member of the Judicial Diversity Initiative; chairs a subgroup of the RCSL Working Group on the Legal Profession and has held visiting fellowships at various universities.