The 2025 annual meeting of the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA), held at the University of Liverpool (15–17 April), brought together over 1,000 scholars and practitioners to engage in critical dialogue on law and society. Known for its interdisciplinary spirit, the SLSA meeting remains one of the key events in the socio-legal academic calendar.
Max Planck Law was prominently represented this year, with papers being presented by Dr Christian Boulanger , Angélica Cocomá , Katharina Ebner , and Dr Victoria Hooton . There were also notable contributions from Dr Rachel Pougnet and the outreach presence of Dr Zeynep Çağlar (Max Planck law | Communications, PR, and DEI). Dr Pougnet was involved in the inaugural workshop of the new Socio-legal Methodological Interrogations (SMI) network, which she co-leads with Dr Michael Ashworth (Newcastle University) and Dr Ignacio Riquelme Espinosa (Universidad de O’Higgins, Chile). The network, with initial support from Max Planck Law and others, seeks to foreground methodological reflection within socio-legal scholarship through sustained international exchange.
Held on 14 April under the title ‘Doing Socio-legal Research: A LatAm–European ECR Methodological Workshop’, the event gathered fourteen researchers from the United Kingdom, Colombia, Chile and Germany. Participants delivered fifteen-minute papers on diverse methodological themes, including legal ethnography within public institutions, doing interviews, and mixed methods (‘diversity in methodological approaches’).
Reflecting on the workshop’s success, Dr Pougnet noted: ‘I think it was the genuine enthusiasm from these different research communities … there really was a lot of appetite for this.’ She highlighted recurring themes that emerged during discussions, including extractivism, research ethics, and the complexities of fieldwork negotiation—issues that the network will continue to explore through follow-up activities such as an upcoming workshop in Chile, online ‘Masterclasses’, and collaborative publications.
Complementing the academic contribution, Max Planck Law maintained a dedicated stand at the SLSA meeting, hosted by Dr Çağlar. The stand attracted sustained interest, engaging many visitors directly. The covers of Max Planck Law researchers’ open access publications and associated QR codes were well received, while printed materials showcasing Max Planck Law proved popular, with all brochures taken by the close of the event.
The stand also served as a point of continuity for connecting with contributors to recent collaborative publications, such as volume edited by Dr Donal K. Coffey and Prof. Stefan Vogenauer . Commenting on her further activities there, Dr Çağlar noted how nice it was for her to also attend panels featuring other Max Planck Law researchers, enabling her to ‘follow up a part of the research at the MPIs indirectly’.