Transforming Cross-National Theory and Research through International Research Collaboratives

该基金资助研究人员网络，或国际研究合作组织（IRCs），他们组织起来完成特定的国际重点法律和社会科学项目。irc的参与者分布在世界各地，并承诺在一个合作研究项目上共同努力，以推进理论、方法和政策，并产生一个明确的学术成果。在资助期间，30个研究中心的成员将探讨跨国法律和社会科学研究的理论和方法问题，涉及的主题包括法律全球化、气候变化、世界各地的债务和信贷法规、全球指标的使用、比较司法结算程序、人权、公民参与法律决策和法律教育的变化。国家科学基金会的资助将使来自低收入和中等收入国家的学者能够前往国际会议，与其他IRC成员合作并展示他们的工作。这一创举对于法学和社会科学的理论和方法论都具有重要意义。跨学科和跨国团队将为他们解决的问题带来更广泛的理论视角。IRCs还将产生关于分析全球法律和社会科学现象的最有效研究方法的新知识。该倡议还有望推动公共政策的进步。在更广泛和更深入的跨国专门知识基础上制定的公共政策产生建设性影响的可能性要大得多。当美国和其他主要的欧洲和亚洲国家面临巨大的新挑战——包括快速的法律变革、国际金融危机，以及加强国家和国际安全的需要——建立一个建立在强有力研究基础上的更全面的法律理论框架是至关重要的。这里描述的协作模式提供了一种创新和有前途的前进方式。

This grant funds networks of researchers, or International Research Collaboratives (IRCs), who organize themselves to accomplish specific internationally-focused law and social science projects. Participants in IRCs are distributed across the world's regions, and commit to work together on a collaborative research project to advance theory, methodology, and policy and to generate a defined scholarly product. During the grant period, members of thirty IRCs will address the theoretical and methodological problems of transnational law and social science research on a variety of topics, including the globalization of law, climate change, debt and credit regulations throughout the world, the use of global indicators, comparative judicial settlement procedures, human rights, citizen participation in legal decision making, and changes in legal education. NSF grant funding will enable scholars from low and middle income countries to travel to an international meeting to collaborate with other IRC members and present their work. This initiative is significant for theory and for methodology in law and social science. The cross-disciplinary and cross-national teams will bring wider theoretical perspectives to the problems they address. The IRCs will also generate new knowledge about the most effective research methods for analyzing global law and social science phenomena. The initiative also holds promise for public policy advances. Public policy formulated on the basis of broader and deeper transnational expertise has significantly greater probability of making a constructive impact. At a time when the US and other leading European and Asian countries face enormous new challenges - including rapid legal changes, international financial crises, and the need for increased national and international security - it is essential to produce a more comprehensive theoretical framework about law that is built on robust research. The collaborative model described here offers an innovative and promising way of moving forward.