Sector Plan researchers publish book entitled ‘Empirical Legal Studies in the Netherlands’

What happens when the judge has ruled on a case and the court case is over? What are the practical effects of a court ruling? Is the conflict really resolved? Is the ruling fully complied with? What are the social and economic effects?

The honest answer is: we often don't know.

This so-called “neglect of legal aftermath” applies not only to court cases but also to many laws and regulations. Whether they work or where they fail is often not investigated.

A new form of legal research, Empirical Legal Studies, is attempting to change this. The Netherlands is at the forefront of this form of research.

The collection Empirical Legal Studies in the Netherlands: Towards a Jurisprudence of Consequences?, edited by Marc Hertogh and Paulien de Winter, brings together a sample of this research.

Between 2019 and 2025, the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen, together with Leiden University, Utrecht University, VU University Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam conducted research within the Empirical Legal Studies (ELS) spearhead of the Sector Plan for Legal Studies.

Based on quantitative and qualitative empirical research, the authors in this book analyse the social effects of legislation and court rulings in private law, criminal law, administrative law, European law and energy law. In addition, the book examines the significance of empirical legal research in legal practice.

From the Groningen Faculty of Law, Michiel van der Wolf, Anna Goldberg, Andrew Zuidema, Albertjan Tollenaar, Barbara Brink, Marc Wever, Heinrich Winter, Bert Marseille, Luuk de Boer, Jamie Behrendt, Lorenzo Squintani, Otelemate Dokubo and Maria Radulesku contributed to this book.

The book is fully open access and available free of charge on the Boom Portal.

This article was published by the Faculty of Law.