Can legal research benefit from evaluation studies?

Abstract

The article describes what evaluation studies have to offer to legal research. Several cases and types of evaluations are presented, in relation to legal or semi-legal questions. Also, a short overview of the contemporary history of evaluation studies is presented. Finally, it will address the question of how to ensure that in legal research and in legal training attention is paid to theories, designs and methods of evaluation studies.

Keywords

• empirical legal research
• evaluation studies
• ex ante evaluations
• process evaluations
• impact evaluations
• relevance for lawyers