Transforming Cross-National Theory and Research through International Research Collaboratives

Law And Society Association, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

This grant funds networks of researchers, or International Research Collaboratives (IRCs), who organize themselves to accomplish specific internationally-focused law and social science projects. Participants in IRCs are distributed across the world's regions, and commit to work together on a collaborative research project to advance theory, methodology, and policy and to generate a defined scholarly product. During the grant period, members of thirty IRCs will address the theoretical and methodological problems of transnational law and social science research on a variety of topics, including the globalization of law, climate change, debt and credit regulations throughout the world, the use of global indicators, comparative judicial settlement procedures, human rights, citizen participation in legal decision making, and changes in legal education. NSF grant funding will enable scholars from low and middle income countries to travel to an international meeting to collaborate with other IRC members and present their work. This initiative is significant for theory and for methodology in law and social science. The cross-disciplinary and cross-national teams will bring wider theoretical perspectives to the problems they address. The IRCs will also generate new knowledge about the most effective research methods for analyzing global law and social science phenomena. The initiative also holds promise for public policy advances. Public policy formulated on the basis of broader and deeper transnational expertise has significantly greater probability of making a constructive impact. At a time when the US and other leading European and Asian countries face enormous new challenges - including rapid legal changes, international financial crises, and the need for increased national and international security - it is essential to produce a more comprehensive theoretical framework about law that is built on robust research. The collaborative model described here offers an innovative and promising way of moving forward.