Law Commons^™

Canadian Courts And Uniform Interpretation - An Empirical Reality Check, Joshua D H Karton, Samantha Wynne

Joshua Karton

The uniform interpretation of uniform law instruments is justifiably a preoccupation of the international uniform law community. However, despite the issue’s importance to the success of legal harmonisation efforts, remarkably little is known about how national courts actually interpret international uniform laws. The literature remains almost entirely anecdotal; no systematic study has been made of the courts of even one state or region to determine whether, as a group, they do or do not interpret international uniform law instruments with an eye to the international legal context.

This article describes an empirical study of Canadian courts’ interpretations of five representative …

It's Not All Statistics: Demystifying Empirical Research, Sarah J. Morath

Sarah J Morath

Although Oliver Wendell Holmes was touting the merits of empirical research over one hundred years ago, only recently have legal academics created a journal and conference dedicated to empirical legal studies. Interestingly, topics of interest to legal writing professors have been a source for empirical research well before the emergence these specialized journals and conferences. For example, empirical research comparing the use of legal prose to plain English in appellate briefs was taking place over 25 years ago. In 1996, the second volume of The Journal of Legal Writing Institute included an empirical study evaluating which professors’ comments students found …