Good ethical practice in empirical research on law

In this guide to research ethics Mark Israel and Iain Hay (Flinders University, Australia*) address ethical issues for socio-legal scholars engaged in empirical research.

The guide is divided into five main sections:

• What is empirical research on law?
• Ethics or regulation?
• What major ethical issues affect empirical research on law?
• How can we respond to ethical problems?
• How can we teach research ethics? (including three cases)

A resource guide includes a list of guidelines and codes of practice as well as a full bibliography.

Mark and Iain are keen to continue to add to the material available on research ethics relating to empirical research in law – if you know of further published material or have an experience of negotiating ethical conduct that would be interesting to other researchers contact Mark on e-mail: mark.israel@uwa.edu.au.

(*In 2010 Mark Israel moved from Flinders to become Winthrop Professor of Law and Criminology in the Faculty of Law, University of Western Australia.)

Last Modified: 4 June 2010