Mark Suchman, Executive Director of the American Bar Foundation (ABF), delivered the keynote address at the University of Hong Kong for the inaugural conference of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies (CILS). Held May 22-23, 2024, the conference, titled “Law &: An Exploration of the Past, Present, and Future of Interdisciplinary Legal Studies,” showcased the intersections between law and other fields of study in keeping with CILS’s overall mission to promote interdisciplinary legal research.
Suchman’s keynote address, titled “Interdisciplinarity and Its Discontents,” highlighted the critical importance and inherent challenges of interdisciplinary research, while also providing remedies to these challenges.
He began his presentation by commending CILS’s mission to evolve into a globally collaborative center for interdisciplinary and empirical legal research. He acknowledged its pioneering role in Asia and its potential to become a hub for interdisciplinary legal scholars worldwide.
Suchman framed his presentation in the history of interdisciplinary studies, acknowledging the distinct phases and shifts that have influenced its development. He defined interdisciplinary as sitting between multidisciplinary (where disciplines exist side by side without integration) and transdisciplinary (which transcends disciplinary boundaries to create new approaches).
He went on to argue that interdisciplinary approaches are crucial for addressing complex, global legal issues, while also emphasizing the difficulty in reconciling different research approaches and cultural styles within academia. He proposed strategies to foster effective interdisciplinary work, including investing in forums and projects that reflect multiple underlying processes and tensions.
Despite the challenges, he encouraged the embrace of interdisciplinary approaches, citing the potential to drive substantial academic and practical innovations in the legal sector.
Suchman said: “The impact of bringing disciplines into dialog with one another isn’t additive, it’s exponential, reshaping how we think, teach, and enact change through the law.”
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About the American Bar Foundation
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is the world’s leading research institute for the empirical and interdisciplinary study of law. The ABF seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. To further this mission the ABF will produce timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and internationally. The ABF’s primary funding is provided by the American Bar Endowment and the Fellows of The American Bar Foundation.