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Trials and Tribulations: Conducting Randomized Experiments in a Socio‐legal Setting
Author(s) -
Pleasence Pascoe
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of law and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.263
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1467-6478
pISSN - 0263-323X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2008.00422.x
Subject(s) - legal research , empirical research , commission , citation , political science , legal writing , empirical legal studies , library science , law , legal psychology , jurisprudence , computer science , philosophy , epistemology
The simplest questions can pose the greatest challenge to those tasked with answering them. This paper provides an account of a randomized control trial conducted in a socio-legal setting in England and Wales during 2005/6. It was aimed at answering the 'simple' question of whether law-related advice (debt advice in this instance) is of benefit to those who receive it. The paper explains the rationale for employing a randomized control trial in this context. It details the many technical, practical, and ethical obstacles that presented themselves during the design and implementation stages of the trial. It also suggests methods that might be adopted to improve future trials conducted in a similar context. While the paper reveals the enormous potential of randomized trials within the socio-legal field, it makes plain the importance of effective inter disciplinary collaboration, detailed technical understanding, and experience to their successful execution. In the context of the 'challenge of trans disciplinarity' detailed in the final report of the Nuffield Inquiry on Empirical Legal Research,1 and a noted 'lack of experience' of conducting social trials in the United Kingdom,2 the need to develop capacity and share such experience as currently exists is readily apparent.