Empirical teaching in law: Building an empirical legal revolution

Online, via Zoom

15 March 2024

Hosted by the Melbourne Law School Empirical Research Network

There is a growing need – and desire – for empirical legal research, and for lawyers who are empirically literate – that is, able to use, evaluate and deploy empirical evidence in their work. Politicians, regulators and policy-makers are increasingly interested in studies examining the practical impact of law and regulation. Further, judges are being required to grapple with statistics and social science evidence in their decision-making. Despite this growing demand and desire for empirical legal research, there are also concerns that there is insufficient empirical capacity in the legal discipline.

Legal education and the law curriculum must play its part in building the next generation of empirically literate advocates and scholars, to enable law students and staff to be both skilled consumers and producers of empirical legal research. 

In this workshop, we considered how and why empirical research might be embedded in the law curriculum, including by enriching the teaching of Priestley 11 subjects. We considered how empirical legal research can be embedded into law teaching, to better support the future of empirical legal scholarship. This included discussion of:

• Subjects dedicated to empirical legal research or empirical methods

• Drawing on empirical scholarship to enrich teaching, including in Priestley 11 subjects

• Including law students as researchers or research assistants in empirical legal projects

• Building capacity of academics to integrate empirical research in their teaching

Selected presentations from the workshop can be accessed below.

Prof Kylie Burns: ‘As if the World Really’ Exists: Teaching Tort Law (and Injury Law) in an Interdisciplinary and Empirical Context

A/Prof Alysia Blackham: A Holistic Approach to Empirical Teaching: Building Capacity across the Law School