On 21st March, the School of Law hosted the launch of the ‘Legal Research Methods; Principles and Practicalities’ book edited by Laura Cahillane and Jennifer Schweppe. Professor Shane Kilcommins commenced proceedings by pointing to the timely nature of the publication and its usefulness for PhD students and early career researchers and he introduced Professor Paul McCutcheon, who launched the book.

Professor McCutcheon emphasised that while sitting on University committees, he had been part of many discussions on research methodology but notably never on the discipline of law. He acknowledged that as lawyers, we are not used to writing about how we research since in the past, it was taken as a given that ‘standard legal methods’ would be used. Therefore, he felt that they book would provide a great contribution to knowledge in setting out various legal methods as well as the pitfalls involved in using them and also dealing with issues such as obtaining ethical approval for research activities.

The event was well attended by staff from the School of Law as well as members of the University Community and was preceded by a workshop on research methods for PhD students.

The School of Law would like to congratulate Laura and Jennifer on a splendid publication.