Call for Abstract – Law Observed: Sociological Methods and Empirical Research on Law

How does law actually work in practice?
How is legal authority produced, negotiated, contested, and experienced in real social contexts?

Special Workshop 42, “Law Observed: Sociological Methods and Empirical Research on Law”, invites scholars to take a closer look at law in action—beyond abstract norms and formal doctrines, and into the everyday practices, actors, institutions, and technologies that shape contemporary legal systems.

Convened by Marco Mazzocca and Miriam Ferraro, this workshop will take place within the framework of the 32nd World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR), themed “Law in the Face of the Changing Problems of the World”, to be held in Istanbul, June 28 – July 3, 2026, at Kadir Has University.
👉 Congress website: https://ivr2026istanbul.org

What is the workshop about?

Modern law operates in increasingly complex social environments—marked by inequality, migration, digitalization, global crises, and shifting forms of authority. This workshop brings together legal philosophers, socio-legal scholars, and empirically oriented researchers interested in observing how law functions as a socially embedded practice.

We welcome contributions employing qualitative and quantitative methods—including ethnography, interviews, discourse analysis, case studies, surveys, and statistical approaches—to explore how legal meanings, decisions, responsibilities, and power relations are socially produced and negotiated across different contexts.

Topics include (but are not limited to):

Sociological and empirical methods in legal research
Legal professions, institutions, and actors
Legal practices and decision-making processes
Law, inequality, migration, and social change
Biolaw and the sociology of health
Technology, digitalization, AI, and legal practice

The workshop aims to foster dialogue between empirical observation and theoretical reflection, showing how studying law on the ground can enrich normative and philosophical debates.