Young Researchers’ Group on
„Comparative Micro-Sociology of Criminal Procedure“
The law-in-action group studied courts and law firms, judges, lawyers,
and their clients and later political inquiries and their publics by
means of ethnography and discourse analysis. Why sociology of law? So
far, scholars focussed on law as means of regulation, on legal processes
of decision making, and the powerful legal institutions and professions
as crucial facets of a modern division of labour. In our project we
asked, how legal discourse practices provide us with certain knowledge
about cases of what really happened, about (im)moral subjects, about
responsibilites and guilt. How law knows became our main concern. [Introduction...]
Research Questions
In the ethnomethodological tradition, we study the 'here and now'
of doing procedure. The situated activities resemble investments into
legal objects, such as cases, claims, statements, etc. As sociolegal
ethnographers we ask questions such as the following: How do lawyers
and their clients invest in their cases? How are files, archives, stories,
or courts involved in case work? How do cases come about in the procedural
course? How is all this different and similar in so called inquisitorial
and adverserial regimes?
Later, we extended our research towards other procedural systems such
as political inquiries in the post 9/11 era (in the EU, Germany, and
England) and law-making activities in the German parliament.
Fieldwork and Discourse Analyses
- The English Study by Dr. Thomas Scheffer
Robes and wigs, barristers and judge, juries and witnesses, clerks and files ...[more...]
- The US Study by Dr. Alex Kozin
The US case study is a conceptual offspring of the English pilot
project
...[more...]
- The German Study by Dr. Kati Hannken-Illjes
Bright colours, big numbers on the courtroom doors
...[more...]
- The Comparative Discourse Analysis on Political Inquiries by Steffen Albrecht, Matthias Michaeler, Jan Schank, Rixta Wundrak led by Thomas Scheffer
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New activities
Special Issue on "Law and Biography" in BIOS
Call for Abstracts/French-German Conference on “Enfermement/Freiheitsentzug”
Latest Texts/Books
My ethnography on the English Crown Court procedure by BRILL
Review
Our comparative ethnography of criminal defence work in different procedural
regimes by PALGRAVE
Teaching in SS 2011
Scheffer: „Einführung in die Institutionelle Ethnographie“ Kurs in Moodle
Scheffer: „Was tun Verfahren? Eine sozialwissenschaftliche Debatte“ Kurs in Moodle
Scheffer: „Arbeitskreis politische Ethnographie“ Termine in Moodle
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THE CASE STUDIES