Research in Law: The Role of CRCFL (Part I)
Founded in 2012, the Católica Research Centre for the Future of the Law is a reference in the field of legal research in Portugal.
The Faculty of Law - School of Porto spoke with Professor Maria da Conceição Cunha, coordinator of the Centre in the Porto section, who accompanies all research projects.
What role does academic research have in this area?
MCC: Teachers are also researchers, and there should be a kind of symbiosis between teaching and research (although sometimes this is difficult to achieve, due to lack of time) - that is, research should be disseminated in the classes and these should also feed the research, from the sharing of reflections and questions between teachers and students On the other hand, students should also be involved in research - from the work they carry out and, in the context of master's degrees and doctorates, from their theses and their participation in projects.
What does legal research propose to discover?
MCC: In the legal area, research does not, of course, aim to discover a cure for a disease or to invent a new technological tool... But it does aim to find ways to prevent and resolve conflicts, in a fair way, and to find ways of social organization that create security and stability. In a way it can be said that ways of preventing and/or curing social illnesses are being sought, such as crime or job insecurity or family breakdowns that require solutions that do not harm the weakest... To find these solutions, jurists must also be helped and collaborate with other areas such as psychology, sociology, economics (depending on the concrete problems to be solved), and it is essential to encourage interdisciplinarity. On the other hand, in the search for solutions, the researcher in law does comparative law studies to understand how other legal systems solve similar problems, always taking into consideration the instruments of international law, especially the law of the European Union, asking whether we are complying with the international obligations to which we are bound and, if not, suggesting changes to the law. In addition to this creative side - finding solutions to social problems by making legislative suggestions - the law researcher also critically analyses the way in which the laws in force are applied by the courts, seeking, if necessary, better interpretations, capable of leading to fairer solutions.
In what ways are the data collected?
MCC: We can (and should) deal with some data, namely statistics, depending on the areas of law (e.g. percentage of violent crimes at any given time; percentage of children at risk, etc.), but it is not the jurists who determine such data (another contribution of interdisciplinarity). The role of lawyers will be to analyze them, to reflect on them, to propose better solutions to the problems. But the main bases of the law researchers' work are the judicial decisions (which mirror the problems/conflicts of society), laws and doctrine.
When the investigation ends, what is the usefulness of the results?
MCC: The results/conclusions may (should) lead to legislative proposals that correct the inadequacies or errors of existing laws and/or better interpretations of the law so that fairer solutions can be achieved.
Do you feel that students are willing to explore this aspect?
MCC: Yes, students, when challenged and encouraged to think critically about problems and the best way to solve them, commit themselves - either by participating in research projects (network research) or through their research work (namely master and doctoral theses). However, network research, through projects, is still not very frequent in law, it is taking its first (but important) steps. For this research to evolve it is also important that funding sources invest more in this area.
Learn more here.