Workshop on Interdisiciplinary Research Methods in EU law
On 8 and 9 September, the London School of Economics Law School organised the Interdisciplinary Research Methods in EU Law Workshop. Armin Cuyvers and Eva Grosfeld presented their research on the application of social psychological insights to EU law.
On a historic day for the United Kingdom and the rest of the world, scholars from a variety of disciplines came together in London to discuss and present their interdisciplinary approaches to the study of EU law. The workshop was organised by the London School of Economics Law School with the view to advance interdisciplinary studies in EU law. Attendees had the pleasure to listen to speakers from sociology, political science, history, philosophy, economics, gender studies, international relations, and policy studies.
Armin Cuyvers and Eva Grosfeld presented their research project ‘Adapting EU law to human nature’, in which they take a social psychological angle to questions of EU law. They discussed how insights from evolutionary and social psychology can be integrated into EU law to improve the design, formulation, and content of EU institutional design and legal norms. As the first data from the project has been collected, Armin and Eva were also able to present some of the first empirical findings and propose how these may lead to evidence-informed law.
The presentation was followed by an inspiring discussion on the collaboration between lawyers and scholars from other disciplines. An intriguing question remains whether and how extralegal insights can be used to inform normative conclusions in EU law.
All contributions to the workshop will be published in a handbook, forthcoming with Edward Elgar in 2023.