Islands, Confluences and Estuaries: When the Legal Doctrinal Meets Social Science Methodologies

Encounters between scholars conducting doctrinal legal research and those using methodologies traditionally associated with the social sciences can be antagonistic. Students and researchers without the confidence to successfully navigate these tensions especially struggle from this methodological friction. It does not need to be this way. These encounters, like a river’s encounters with islands, confluences and estuaries, can enrich the field. I use river ecology and experiences from a recently completed PhD thesis in a law school dominated by doctrinal legal research to make this point. Social scientists collaborating with legal scholars may benefit from an improved understanding of these tensions.