The University of Luxembourg is supporting the elaboration of official guidelines for legal research by the Faculty of Law of NUOL. A committee of lecturers was created to draft these guidelines under the supervision of the two vice-dean of the FLP adjuncts to research. The committee is supported by the Liaison Officer of the Inter-University Project.
The committee meets once a month for participatory workshops led by Dr. Perrine Simon, in order to elaborate the content of these guidelines following the pre-identification of topics/chapters by Dr. Perrine Simon together with Dr. Latdavanh Donkeodavong (Deputy Head of Research and Academic Service Division). The guidelines will include chapters on the distinctiveness of legal research, sources in law, plagiarism and legal ethics, style of citation, and structuring a law research. The draft guidelines are expected to be presented at the FLP in April/May and subsequently adopted by FLP and NUOL by summer 2021. This activity is jointly organised with LuxDev (Lao/031) providing financial support.
The first workshop took place on 25th of November and was dedicated to identifying the distinctiveness of legal research. Participants discussed what is legal research, what belongs to this field and what does not. They were asked to search for material about the autonomy of law as a field (academic papers, statement by Dean’s of Law Faculties, curriculum of Universities abroad, etc.) and presented their findings to other members during the meeting.
The second workshop took place on 23rd of December and focused on primary and secondary sources in Law. Participants discussed what are the sources researchers need to look at when doing legal research. They had to search for examples in Law textbooks and academic law papers to identify the main sources widely used around the world and to present their findings to other members. The workshop was concluded by listing primary and secondary legal sources that FLP students and lecturers should take into account in their research.
