Reflections on Methods from an Interdisciplinary Research Project in Global Environmental Law

This research note presents reflections on experiences and challenges during a 5-year interdisciplinary and multi-site research project in global environmental law. We reflect on research methods and the iterative processes that proved necessary to compare case studies with a variety of local communities engaged in discussions around free, prior informed consent and fair and equitable benefit-sharing in different regions of the world. These experiences lead to reflections on the intricate links between research methods and questions of research ethics in the study of global environmental law. The note also provides a brief overview of research design steps, departing from ontology through to methodology and the choice of methods applied to the study of environmental law at different levels and in different sites.