Socio-Legal Research Centre

The Socio-Legal Research Centre investigates the origins, operations and effects of legal regimes, policies and practices.

The Griffith Law School, despite its recent origins, has one of the strongest concentrations of socio-legal researchers in Australia. The Socio-Legal Research Centre was established to maximise the potential of this area of strength. At present, it is the only such research centre in Australia.

The meaning of "socio-legal": Socio-legal research and scholarship has its theoretical and methodological base in the social sciences. It seeks to understand law as a social phenomenon. It is distinguished from other traditions of legal scholarship and research, such as the "black letter" tradition of legal exegesis. Its methodology is predominantly empirical and social-theoretical rather than doctrinal. The Socio-Legal Research Centre includes scholars who work in the jurisprudential tradition, and whose approach to law is philosophical and draws on social theory.

"Socio-legal" encompasses

• theoretical and empirical analyses of the nature of law and its relationship to society and the State in the context of a rapidly changing world;
• analyses, both historical and contemporary, of the social, economic and political factors leading to the development of the law and legal process;
• examination of the operation of the law in formal contexts; for example, the courts, or in informal contexts, for example, the law office;
• analyses of the process of decision-taking by those responsible for the administration of the law; and
• analyses of the experience of those affected by the process of law.

Members

Socio-Legal Research Centre Members Quickplace contains information on each member (including their current research plan) as well as general documents and forms for use by SLRC members external to Griffith.