2026/04/08 by Daniel Naurin, Johan Lindholm, Urška Šadl +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Artificial Intelligence in Law #Comparative and International Law Studies #Computational and Text Analysis Methods
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/9781009672580.011
openalex created_date 2026/04/08 · openalex publication_date 2026/04/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
The chapter discusses the creation and maintenance of databases offering accurate, research-ready data for multidisciplinary use. It draws on the experience with the IUROPA CJEU Database Project (IUROPA), which has collected data about the decision-makers and the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). IUROPA and similar multi-user databases must live up to four criteria for databases, as proposed by Weinshall and Epstein. First, they must address real-world problems. Second, they must be open and accessible. Third, they must deliver reliable and reproducible data. Fourth, they must be ageless and easily calibrated to research purposes unknown at the time of data collection and cleaning. These criteria involve trade-offs: the quest for reliability may, first, precipitate difficult choices such as whether to discard or improve upon ‘imperfect’ data or tempt creators to endlessly postpone publication of ‘incomplete’ data; second, sustainability and human intervention are inversely proportionate when it comes to database maintenance; finally, a fledgling discipline like empirical legal studies in EU law imposes a disproportionate time commitment and financial responsibility on a small group of researchers.