Legal Empirical Research Support Network

Welcome to LERSNet, the website of the Legal Empirical Research Support Network.

The principal aim of LERSNet is to stimulate the production of high quality empirical research into law and justice issues, both in the UK and elsewhere. This website is central to the Network as it will:

  • promote communication between empirical researchers, working both in academic institutions and in other research organisations;
  • encourage new entrants to the field by enabling them to ask more experienced colleagues for advice and assistance on research matters;
  • provide new channels of communication between researchers and research funders.

The value of the website depends on the use made of it. Please let us know what you would like to see on the website. Also please send us material you would like included on the site. We have made a start but it is not set in concrete. We want it to respond to the needs of the research community. Its vitality depends on those who use it.

This website has been established with the support of the Socio-Legal Studies Association, but will operate independently of the SLSA. Its development would not have been possible without financial support from the Nuffield Foundation.

Why do we need a research support network?

The idea for the network arose from the finding of the Nuffield Inquiry into Empirical Research on Law that there is currently a lack of capacity within the research community. Martin Partington, one of the co-authors of the inquiry report, organised a meeting at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London in the spring of 2007 to discuss the possibility of creating a network to support new researchers in various ways, in particular, those who would like to carry out research but feel that they lack the skills to do so. More than 80 people attended the meeting and many more expressed interest in the initiative.

In autumn 2007, the SLSA’s Executive Committee invited Martin Partington to its September meeting at which he tabled a discussion paper. The outcome of the meeting was the decision to set up a Working Party to take the Network forward.

Since then, the Working Party has made some progress in defining the aims of the new Network and met at the Law Commission in December 2007 to consider next steps. It is hoped that information and discussion can be promoted via an online discussion forum and possibly an e-newsletter. The network was officially launched on 18 March 2008 at a special session at the SLSA annual conference at the University of Manchester.

Martin Partington recently summarised progress in an article in the spring 2008 Socio-Legal Newsletter (see below).

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