In this paper, an attempt is made to work out a methodology for comparative legal research, which goes beyond the ‘functional method’ or methodological scepticism.
The starting point is the idea that we need a ‘toolbox’, not a fixed methodological road map, and that a lot of published, but largely unnoticed, research outside rule and case oriented comparative law offers varying approaches, which could usefully be applied in comparative research. Six methods have been identified: the functional method, the structural one, the analytical one, the law-in-context method, the historical method, and the common core method. Basically, it is the aim of the research and the research question that will determine which methods could be useful. Moreover, different methods may be combined, as they are complementary and not mutually exclusive.This paper focuses on scholarly comparative legal research, not on the use of foreign law by legislators or courts, but, of course, the methodological questions and answers will largely overlap.

Central to this contribution is the question whether Dworkin’s theory of constructive interpretation as a method of applying law for the judge, can be used as a method of legal-dogmatic research. Constructive interpretation is a method of legal interpretation that aims to find a normative unity in the diversity of rules that characterize a legal system. In order to find an answer to this question, the key elements of Dworkin’s theory are explained and applied to the author’s PhD research. Methodological difficulties that could give rise to problems when applying Dworkin’s theory, are investigated. In the end, the author concludes that since the judge and the scholar use quite the same methods when interpreting law, the principles of constructivism should fit legal research well, even though some aspects of Dworkin’s theory are difficult to operationalize in practice. As a leading notion however, constructivism constitutes a workable method of legal research.

Rechtseenheid speelt in de juridische dogmatiek en de rechtsvorming een grote rol. Op tal van fronten wordt er onderzoek naar gedaan, beleid over ontwikkeld, en komt rechtseenheidbeogende wetgeving tot stand. Bij nadere bestudering blijkt het daarbij echter niet steeds over hetzelfde te gaan. In dit artikel wordt een typologie van varianten van rechtseenheid ontwikkeld. De auteurs analyseren het debat en trachten het te ontdoen van de begripsmatige verwarring. Vervolgens werken zij een van de varianten uit, namelijk rechtseenheid tussen rechtsnormen die niet logisch tegenstrijdig zijn. Daarna wordt besproken welke actoren en instrumenten een rol spelen bij het bewerkstelligen van die variant van rechtseenheid.

De toepassing van Europese natuurbeschermingsregels wordt bij veel infrastructurele projecten als juridische belemmering ervaren. In deze bijdrage geven de auteurs een positieve blik op de ervaringen in of nabij Natura 2000-gebieden in Noordwest-Europese estuaria en kustgebieden en stellen dat Natura 2000 niet per se een struikelblok hoeft te vormen, en dat het toepassen van innovatieve ontwerpmethoden als Bouwen met de Natuur het verschil kan maken voor de implementatie van Natura 2000 op projectniveau. Empirisch bewijs hiervoor is in veertien cases gezocht, waarbij drie verschillende onderzoeksontwerpen zijn gebruikt. Afgesloten wordt met een vooruitblik naar wat dit betekent voor de private partijen en overheden, voor de evaluatie van Natura 2000 in 2015 en voor Bouwen met de Natuur als innovatieve ontwerpmethode.

Within the field of criminology, marriage and labour are important determinants for the decline in criminal behavior. However, these factors are seldom researched in the context of historical criminology. By conducting research into crimes against property in Rotterdam, those brought to the Rotterdam correctional court in the 1812-1820 period, this paper attempts to shed light on the topic. Our findings show that a majority of the delinquents in question were employed, while a minority of those female delinquents were married, yet also in gainful employment in most cases. Male adolescents, who had just entered the labour market, were the largest group of male delinquents. The female population of delinquents consisted mostly of women who were close to marriageable age. Thus, it is suggested that labour and marriage supplied insufficient economical stability to inhibit criminal behavior during the 1812-1820 period.

This contribution focuses on the manner in which between 1880 and 1940 private actors in the port of Antwerp, whether or not in cooperation with the public authorities, interpreted crime and crime control in terms of risk management, loss prevention and situational crime prevention through a strict economic approach, as opposed to the then dominant institutionalized and criminological discourse. Whereas crime control by the major criminal justice institutions put an emphasis on the biological, psychological and sociological characteristics of the offender, measures taken by maritime, industrial and commercial organizations were aimed exclusively at manipulating the temporal and spatial dimensions of the opportunity structures in which criminal activities, which posed a threat to the economic profitability, could develop.

Older people are less frequent a victim of violence, crime against property, vandalism as well as cybercrime. This probably can partly be explained by the fact that elder people find themselves relatively less often in situations (think of public space, cyberspace) where the stakes of being victimized are high. Almost half of the older victims of violence know their offenders. Mostly they are from the same neighborhood. The majority of the violent offences against older people thereby occur in their everyday surroundings. Even though older people experience criminal offences less often, their attitude, the way they look at crime and adapt their behavior accordingly does – in most cases – not differ from the average Dutchman. Their fear of being victimized is equal to other age groups as is their assessment of the risk of being victimized and their behavior in avoiding unsafe places in their neighborhood.

Two approaches have dominated the way elder abuse is explained and defined: the intrapersonal and interpersonal approaches. More recently, an environmental approach is emerging that takes into account contextual factors. This approach also meets the perspectives of older individuals themselves better. They describe how they feel abused or neglected by the system – by the way in which we organize our institutions. Institutions mirror our society and are shaped in interaction with societal norms and expectations. This influences the way in which older individuals are looked upon, are being approached, and how they see themselves within these institutions. This system abuse is currently beyond the scope of the most commonly used definitions and approaches of elder abuse. However, it is important to acknowledge system abuse, because it makes explicit how older individuals feel abused by and within our institutions. The distress and harm that they experience can therewith be acknowledged and prevented.

While most restorative justice research would suggest that victims and offenders are often satisfied with their experiences, the number of referrals to these type of programs remain low. This lack of accessibility was the topic of the European Forum for Restorative Justice project, ‘Accessibility and Initiation of Restorative Justice’. This article reports on the project’s findings with regard to several factors which limit greater accessibility, as supported by the attitudes of referral bodies and restorative justice practitioners examined in the frame of this project. The results of previous research and the current empirical research illustrate how accessibility is hindered by (1) lacking or insufficient restorative justice legislation, (2) exclusion criteria regarding which cases may be suitable to restorative justice procedures, (3) a lack of knowledge among legal actors, restorative justice practitioners and the general public about restorative justice and its benefits, (4) the persistence of a retributive legal culture within criminal justice and (5) a need for greater cooperation among those who are involved whether as referral bodies or mediators or facilitators. Qualitative data is presented to provide a better understanding of these elements, in addition to potential solutions that were reported by the respondents. Furthermore, the authors take a closer look at the current situation in the Netherlands, including an overview of the trainings that were developed within the Accessibility project. The results of these trainings reinforce the factors that were identified by previous research and the current empirical research, and aimed to look for solutions to the main barriers to greater accessibility.

This research aims to explore empirically (method: questionnaire) the usefulness of mediation as a technique of external conflict management in the event of a family business transfer. More specifically, the research intents to verify if the conditions of application, the consequences and the benefits of mediation as described in general literature apply to the context of a family business (transfer), since Prince underlined 25 years ago that research is required to develop: ‘a system of intervention that employs the concepts, techniques, and logic of mediation that apply to the unique aspects of family business’. Results of the own research showed that mediation was an adequate technique of external conflict management in the context of a family business transfer and that it was more successful than consulting, defined as other techniques of external conflict management, in the researched cases. Furthermore, the research found indications that mediation is an adequate technique beyond the researched cases.

This article demonstrates the influence of intellectual debate in policy paradigm changes. In response to piracy around the Horn of Africa, Dutch naval forces have participated in NATO and EU counter piracy operations since 2008. Although successful, also self protection measures by the merchant ships are required to provide security to individual ships. Since 2008 Dutch ship owners have advocated to amend legislation to allow private armed security teams (PAST) for individual protection, similar to policies by most foreign countries. Because of sensitivities concerning the private use of arms, policymakers, politicians, stakeholders and advisors have circumvented the issue. Instead of addressing the question of self defense, the paradigm of state monopoly for violence and the state’s obligation to provide security, made individual protection by embarked military teams to develop as a governmental service at levels that turned out to be unachievable for the armed forces. This policy caused several types of friction. Currently, the only acceptable solution seems to be to allow PAST and legislation is being prepared accordingly. A successful paradigm change however can only be achieved if an adequate new paradigm is constructed by intellectual debate. (Hall, Visser & Hemerijck) So far this debate has been too limited in scope. Debate has been state centric and focused on legal views and regulation. To resolve friction, additional analysis of differing roles by the state and individual entrepreneurs is required. Such analysis argues that the state severely reduces individual protection and politicians decide on the fundamental question of self defense by ships at the high seas.

Child homicide is a phenomenon that not infrequently leads to shock and societal unrest. However, the precise nature and scope of child homicide in the Netherlands remains unknown. This article attempts to fill the gap in our current knowledge by reporting descriptive research on child homicide in the Netherlands in the period 2009-2014. Further, this article aims to assess if media attention regarding child homicide brings about a so-called copycat-effect. By means of descriptive statistics, case, victim and perpetrator characteristics of 74 cases of filicide are assessed.

In this article we examine which factors are correlated to the rehabilitation of prisoners. Central is the prisoners’ willingness during their imprisonment to work on a successful return in society. Assumptions derived from the theory were statistically tested with data from the Dutch Detainee Survey 2014; a large-scale study, in which prisoners held in all Dutch penitentiary institutions (N = 29) were surveyed (n = 2120). The results are in line with the theory and show that detainees are more positive about their (potential for) rehabilitation when they are more satisfied with a) the way they are treated by correctional officers (staff orientation); b) active deployment of the so-called Detention and Re-integration Plan; c) their daily program and activities, and; d) the experienced autonomy and personal decision-making. These outcomes offer fruitful perspectives on how the prison system can promote a successful return of prisoners in our society.

Israel was spared the worst of the world financial crisis of 2008-2009. However, austerity concerns are by no means invisible in the developments in the field of civil procedure. These concerns correlate heavily with the long-standing Israeli preoccupation with ‘speeding up’ justice. An array of simplified procedural tracks, aimed at addressing the perceived inadequacy of ‘standard’ procedure, have been developed in Israel over the years. The importance of simplified procedures in the Israeli system cannot be overestimated. Their development illustrates the dialectical tension between the values of ‘efficiency’ and ‘quality’ in the administration of justice. During periods of austerity, the scales are easily (or easier) tipped in favour of efficiency and general or particular simplification of procedure. In times of prosperity, on the other hand, concerns over ‘quality’, access to justice, and truth discovery predominate, and attempts at promoting efficiency and/or simplification at their expense tend to be bogged down. Such attempts also tend to lose their extrinsic legitimacy and are widely viewed as ‘cutting corners’. This is evident in the recent Israeli experience with civil procedure reform.

This article considers the effect of austerity-induced public spending cuts on the English civil justice system. In doing so it initially examines two fundamental changes engendered by the effect austerity has had on civil court fees and legal aid: first, a challenge to the traditional commitment in English procedure to adversarial process, and a concomitant increase in inquisitorial or investigative processes; and secondly, the growth in use of unqualified individuals to act as advocates in court for individual litigants who are unable to afford legal representation. It then turns to consider what, if any, effect austerity has had on simplified processes available in English civil procedure.

Canada is in the midst of an access to justice crisis. The rising costs and complexity of legal services in Canada have surpassed the need for these services. This article briefly explores some obstacles to civil justice as well as some of the court-based programmes and initiatives in place across Canada to address this growing access to justice gap. In particular, this article explains the Canadian civil justice system and canvasses the procedures and programmes in place to make the justice system more efficient and improve access to justice in small and simple matters. Although this article does look briefly at the impact of the global financial crisis on access to justice efforts in Canada, we do not provide empirical data of our own on this point. Further, we conclude that there is not enough existing data to draw correlations between austerity measures in response to the global crisis and the challenges facing Canadian civil justice. More evidence-based research would be helpful to understand current access to justice challenges and to make decisions on how best to move forward with meaningful innovation and policy reform. However, there is reason for optimism in Canada: innovative ideas and a national action plan provide reason to believe that the country can simplify, expedite, and increase access to civil justice in meaningful ways over the coming years.

The current debate in Brazilian Civil Procedure revolves around efficiency, legal certainty, and access to justice, not austerity. As a matter of fact, the debate over austerity is nonexistent in Brazil so far. By expanding the access to justice to a broader portion of the society, the legal system increased the number of cases and the costs associated with the judicial system. But the excess litigation and expense associated with the expansion of access to justice has contradictorily curtailed access to justice. This new situation demands new efforts to increase efficiency and legal certainty, while still increasing access to justice.

The Spanish justice system has been shaken by the economic downturn as many other institutions have. This article addresses in the first place some statistical data that shed light as regards to the number of judges and the costs and length of the procedure in Spain. These figures help to understand, in the second place, the impact of austerity measures on the judiciary, namely, the freeze on the hiring of judges and the establishing of high court fees. While they mainly concern the supply side of justice services, others such cost reductions in legal aid have had, in the third place, an impact on the demand side, driving many citizens to social exclusion and to resorting to self-defence mechanisms. The final part of this article addresses some remedies that may alleviate judiciary’s workload, but that fall short of doing it. All in all, the Spanish justice system seems to require a holistic approach to patch up edges, but one in which the role of judge-made justice in a democratic society has to be central again.

The demand for and availability of civil justice procedures for small claims can neither be disentangled nor extricated from the health of the economic climate of the relevant country concerned. In this article, it is argued that despite not being a developed country, Ghana was not completely insulated from the hardships or implementation of austerity measures that were triggered by the global economic meltdown. The inevitability of behavioural changes on the part of the Government of Ghana as lawmaker and provider of the machinery for civil justice on the one hand and small claims litigants as users of the civil procedure on the other hand are also explored in the article. After properly situating the exploration in the relevant economic context, the article makes recommendations regarding how to minimise the impact of the austerity measures on small claims litigants.