Professor Achilles Skordas and Dr Patrick Capps will deliver lectures on their research at the Legal Research Network Summer School 2010, held from 23 to 27 August 2010 at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. They are joined by three research students from the School of Law - Clair Gamage, Lydia Hayes and Ben-Jacob Diewitz - who will also present papers on their current research.

The Legal Research Network, which was established in 2008, facilitates collaborative and international research between the Faculties of Law at the Universities of Groningen, Ghent, Uppsala, Turku, Göttingen, Bristol and Budapest (ELTE). It runs both an Annual Conference, and a Summer School.  

The Summer School provides an exciting opportunity for PhD researchers from the partner Universities to present to, and discuss their research with, staff and student researchers from the other European institutions. There are also lectures from established researchers about their current research.  This year's theme will be "Method or Methods in Legal Science – New Methodological Challenges in Postmodernity".  The purpose of the Summer School 2010 is to compare, discuss and to open up for alternative approaches to legal research. Law in modern society presents new and stimulating methodological challenges. It gives scholars an opportunity to rethink and consolidate traditional legal methods. Sessions will include discussion of the importance for scholars and PhD students today of popular techniques such as deconstruction, language, games or other more recent developments in philosophy of science – as well as new approaches in legal theory and practice. Is the pluralistic method the way forward or are there other ways to meet the needs of today’s society? How can legal science contribute?

The Annual Conference consists of a keynote lecture and several workshops dedicated to on the current year's theme, which in 2010 was "Experts in the judicial process",  as well as general workshops on a wider range of subjects, open to researchers using interdisciplinary approaches to law, such as sociology, economics and philosophy. Law School participants in the 2010 Annual Conference, hosted by University of Groningen, included Professor Paula Gilliker presenting on The Draft Common Frame of Reference: Moving from the “academic” to the “political” in harmonising the private law of Europe and Professor Judith Masson, presenting on The use of experts in child care proceedings in England and Wales: benefits, costs and controls.