The workshop discusses institutional contexts and scholarly traditions upon the development of those approaches that come under the banner of socio-legal studies in Germany and the UK. It has three core aims: 1) To consider how different academic traditions and institutional contexts have influenced the development of socio-legal research in Germany and the UK; 2) to scrutinise theoretical and methodological approaches with a view to exploring similarities and differences in both contexts; and 3) to start an initial dialogue among participants, and to publish the research resulting from these interactions with a view to forging closer ties across the German and UK socio-legal communities, and to facilitating future connections and collaborations. To achieve these aims, the workshop will reflect upon the similarities and differences between German Rechtssoziologie and socio-legal studies in the UK, with particular focus on the historical development of such ideas and approaches, as well as on identifying points of connection. It will look to generate initial conversations between scholars in these communities and to foster the continuation of such conversations subsequent to this event. Participants will discuss the relevant methodologies, theories and concepts used in the shaping of contemporary socio-legal studies in Germany and the UK.
Sponsors:
• The Socio-Legal Studies Association, UK
• Vereinigung für Rechtssoziologie
• Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Department of Law, Research Units Recht im Kontext and Law & Society Institute
Conveners:
• Jen Hendry (University of Leeds)
• Naomi Creutzfeldt (University of Westminster)
• Christian Boulanger (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Recht im Kontext)
Participants:
• Timur Bocharov (Kent Law School)
Legal Culture v. Recht als Kultur: the UK and German Approaches to Law and Culture
• Klaas Hendrik Eller (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Entangled histories of „Contract and society“: Socio-legal influence on paradigms of contract in the UK and Germany
• Walter Fuchs (Institute for the Sociology of Law and Criminology, Vienna) &
Andrea Kretschmann (Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin)
Waves of cultural perspectives on law in the history of German-language Sociology of Law
• Tanja Herklotz (Humboldt-University zu Berlin)
Socio-Legal Studies in Germany, the UK, the USA and India
• Ioannis Kampourakis, (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford)
Social Theories of Law in the UK and Germany: Questioning the Place of Theory in Socio-Legal Studiesa
• Antonia Layard (University of Bristol Law School)
Thinking about Urban Law
• Allison Lindner (Kent Law School)
A methodology for an economic sociology of law approach to the South African waste management economy
• Stefan Machura (Bangor University)
Milestones and directions: Socio-legal studies in Germany and the United Kingdom
• Jess Mant (School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University)
Using socio-legal tools to deconstruct the Family Courtroom
• Amanda Perry-Kessaris (Kent Law School)
Doing sociolegal research in design mode