The course is a standalone course, which nevertheless connects to the methods-component of the curriculum by providing students with a deep-dive into experiments: what they are, how they are used, and what we can learn from them about the law and its interaction with people(s).

The course will give a comprehensive overview of experimental methods in international law, with a strong practical component (participating in in-class simple experiments, developing an experimental research proposal in lieu of a term paper), as well as an explicit research orientation. Reading material primarily consists of published research papers that present an experiment to tackle a legal research question, allowing students to understand how empirical scholars approach questions of the law, what methods they use, and how they add to our understanding of the effects that laws have. Seminar style discussion will focus on a critical examination of the limitations of these experimental methods.