International publication about ELS in Dutch legal education
Researchers from the Coherent Private Law research program have published an article in The Law Teacher about the state of the art of Empirical Legal Studies education in the Netherlands.
The article is available open access here: Full article: Empirical legal studies in the law school curriculum in the Netherlands: what is the state of the art and where do we go from here? (tandfonline.com)
In this article, Ekaterina Pannebakker, Helen Pluut and Stijn Voskamp together with Wouter de Zanger (formerly Utrecht University, now FvKG Advocaten) describe and discuss the portfolio of courses in which empirical legal research skills are currently taught to law students in the Netherlands. It results from an in-depth country-wide study they undertook as part of a project supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in view of the growing attention to ELS.
The paper concludes with a reflection on the future of ELS education in the Netherlands. Recently, the national ELS Academy was launched, with Helen Pluut as director. It aims to develop a country-wide network of resources and education for empirical research methods. The mission is to equip future lawyers and scholars with this important skill set.