Online Symposium “Empirical Turn”

Ten years ago, German legal researcher Niels Petersen published an academic manifesto (in German, accompanied by an abstract in English) analysing whether continental jurisprudence might need an "empirical turn". His article provoked various responses, including a sharply worded backlash by Ino Augsberg who criticized the "recent empiricist tone in jurisprudence". Ten years later, we revisit the debate in an Online Symposium by Law's|Empirics. Are we any wiser today? Did the passage of time vindicate one view or the other? Or was the disagreement solely about words, maybe even a misunderstanding? Our symposium lets both authors revisit the issue and update the debate, in addition to other contributors whom we asked about their views. All symposium articles...

Standardization of State Exams or Competition in the Federal System?

Abstract | German legal education is in part determined by federal law and in part by the local law of the German states. In order to ensure the compatibility of the examinations the Conference of the Ministers of Justice has discussed a variety of measures. Unfortunately, this discussion was not accompanied by empirical research on the existence and impact of such differences. However, a statistical study about students moving from one state to the other gives, at least, hints about this question. Together with other available data on the university part of the State Examination the study provides arguments why the current differences between the legal education statutes of the German states are less important than differences in the...