Table of contents
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1. Professions and methods
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2. The basic method in the era of Legal Informatics
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3. Concluding remarks
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References
DOI: 10.38023/a6bba998-98f5-44ba-ae2d-fe4cb4d310a1
Legal informatics and our basic method
Citation: Ahti Saarenpää, Legal informatics and our basic method, in: Jusletter IT 23 February 2023
A method is a many-splendored thing. On the most general level, it no doubt brings the practitioners of a science together. Similarly, a method provides professions with a frame of reference – coordinates to steer by. True to form then, being lawyers, we are convinced that our method is a bond we share, and something that distinguishes us from other professions. In theory, this is in fact the case; in practice, we find a very different story. A great deal of legal literature – especially doctrinal literature – lacks expressly articulated methods or commitments to a particular school of thought. Yet, if we take a look at what we write, we find quite a few things that mark us out as lawyers. Indeed, as Alois Troller did, we can speak of the profession as having a basic method. It is the routine we follow that tells us what is important in legal life, in particular in legal literature and communicating research findings. This basic method inevitably changes over time. The contribution takes a close look at how Legal Informatics has changed – or is changing – the profession’s basic method and confirmation bias.
