ABSTRACT
Empirical legal research is defined here to include the study of law, legal processes and legal phenomena using social research methods, such as interviews, observations or questionnaires. The starting point, therefore, is always the research question. Once the research question has been formulated, and the literature review completed, it should be clear whether or not that question can be answered without the collection and analysis of primary data. If not, the theoretical, methodological and practical issues of collecting original data must be tackled. This chapter overviews some of those issues. It draws upon research into magistrates' decision-making in domestic violence cases and jury decision-making in rape cases. These studies illustrate some of the ways in which empirical legal research has enhanced understanding of lay decision-making in the legal process and the methodological challenges posed by such work. Good empirical research involves more than formulating a research question and choosing a research method. Theory is an important part of empirical research.
