The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research

• Publication year: 2013
• Pages: 108
• Citation: Vol. 42 No. 8 Pg. 108

42 Colo.Law. 108 The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research Vol. 42, No. 8 [Page 108] The Colorado Lawyer August, 2013

Review of Legal Resources

The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research

Shelly Dill Combs.

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The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research

Edited by Peter Cane and Herbert M. Kritzer

1,094 pp.; $55

Oxford University Press, 2010

198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016

(800) 334-4249; www.oup.com

Reviewed by Shelly Dill Combs

Shelly Dill Combs is a staff attorney at the Judicial Arbiter Group, Inc. -(720) 932-3447, sdill-combs@jaginc. com.

The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research (Handbook) is not what I expected at first blush. I say this both as a practitioner and as someone who currently teaches legal research to college students. Contrary to the implication of the title, the Handbook is not a quick-and-dirty "how to do legal research" text; rather, it is a massive compilation of detailed empirical legal research on a variety of legal topics. It is written by academics and primarily for academics; therefore, many attorneys will find the Handbook an intellectual exercise, with less practical implications for the daily practice of law.

The first part of the book, comprising more than 800 pages, surveys the state of empirical legal research both within and outside the contemporary "Empirical Legal Studies" (ELS) movement in the United States. Editors Cane and Kritzer note that the Handbook was designed to fill the gap in literature that exists in this area. The editors are careful to point out that they have adopted a broad perspective of what empirical...