Reflections on methods and interdisciplinarity

In this chapter we explore the concepts that are central to this handbook. We reflect on methods, legal research and interdisciplinarity. We praise methodological pluralism and contextualism as tools generating a deeper and different understanding of the law than doctrinal research could produce. This handbook is a manifestation of the replacement of formalism and substantialism by contextualism. Consequently, it stands for an increase in interdisciplinary approaches in the study of law in general and of European law in particular.