Interdisciplinary dialogues on comparative methods: Comparative law and Comparative Case Studies

Interview with Derek Beach, Full Professor of Political Science, University of Århus

Comparative approaches are widely pursued in legal and non-legal disciplines. But how do they differ? Do they have something in common? These questions will be explored through interviews with prestigious scholars from several non-legal disciplines. The transcripts of the interviews will be published in a Special Issue of the Comparative Law Review, edited by Giuseppe Bellantuono, Valentina Cuocci and Alessandro Palmieri. The Special Issue is one of the initiatives organized by the section of Law and Economics, established by the Italian Association of Comparative Law in 2025.

In this webinar, prof. Derek Beach will engage in a dialogue with Comparative Law scholars about the methods of comparative research in the social sciences. Topics dealt with will include the definition of case studies, theories of causation, types of causal mechanisms and their role in policy evaluation.
Prof. Beach is at the forefront of methodological research on case study methods and process tracing He has co-written with Rasmus Brun Pedersen the first book on Process-tracing (2nd edition in 2019) and a book on causal case studies (2016). He also published numerous articles and chapters on methodology. The principal focus of his substantive research has been investigating and explaining the dynamics of the European integration process using in-depth case study research methods. He also engaged in numerous policy evaluations for UN agencies, the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group, and the Joint Data Center (World Bank/UNHCR).

Scientific coordinator: prof. Giuseppe Bellantuono (University of Trento)

For Zoom credentials send a mail to giuseppe.bellantuono@unitn.it.