The Vrije Universiteit (VU) and the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) are hosting a symposium on normativity in empirical legal research on December 7, Thursday afternoon.

Empirical Legal Studies is a domain within legal research that has rapidly expanded. This type of research has enabled academics to move from studying law in books to looking at law in action. However, the use of empirical approaches in researching legal issues has been topic of discussion due to the normative foundations of the law. This symposium will center its attention on the long-standing is/ought dilemma. We aim to foster a deeper understanding of how normative values shape the direction and interpretation of empirical research, and conversely, how empirical data can inform normative legal theories. What insights can various fields studying law offer each other? How can we respect the normative foundation of the law while also following the specific methodological rules of each discipline? We will discuss this and more on December 7, Thursday afternoon.

The registration form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdSgX7eWnd0FEbZyuVo7_q0kLggRtWLHuMe-nVkrq0PjBtTfQ/viewform.