The European Advantage in Empirical Comparative Law

Empirical legal studies in Europe lag behind developments in the US. By contrast, comparative law is a prominent field of research and teaching in many European countries, while it plays a more limited role in the US. Thus, as we combine empirical studies and comparative law (a.k.a. “empirical comparative law”), European legal scholarship may have at least a partial advantage over its US counterpart. In this paper, a content analysis of working papers and journal articles provides evidence of a stronger propensity of European scholars to include a comparative dimension in work of empirical legal studies. The paper also categorises the different methods with which Europe scholars have already conducted research in empirical comparative law. Doing so also shows how expertise in comparative law is crucial in making full use of this form of empirical legal research. Thus, despite some challenges, this paper suggests that European research in empirical comparative law should have a promising future.