What Is the Point of Empirical Legal Research on EU Law?

The growing popularity of empirical legal studies (ELS) in the EU has gone hand in hand with increasing resistance against the new movement. This raises the issue as to whether, and what precisely, empirical legal research adds to our understanding of EU law. The chapter argues that the contribution is three-fold. First, ELS allows us to investigate old questions about EU law which we have always been asking, but with different – often better suited – tools. Second, it adds important new questions to the research agenda that had previously escaped scholarly attention. Third, it extends the concept of EU law, making it richer and more inclusive. This intellectual acquis is its strength but also makes ELS susceptible to two lines of critique. Some may see it as going too far, methodologically and substantively, from existing legal scholarship and discourse, others as not going far enough.