A law that does not work is like a banknote without value, it is worthless, at best a it has some symbolic value.
How do we study the effects of law?
This is a topic within sociology of law. It is a topic which requires a combination of both legal methods and sociological methods.
First, one has to study the law and determine what the law is (de lege lata), and then one has to translate (operationalize) the legal content of the law into sociological research questions that can be measured.
The research questions will then be the basis for the questions of surveys and interviews.
The danger, if this translation is not done properly, is that one conducts an expensive and time-consuming research that misses the law or does not answer the basic question if the law works in practice.
I want to present what might become a new standard for the study on the effects of (human rights) law.
I know it sound pompous and grand, but you will be surprised how little research there is on this topic.
Hadi Khorsravi Lile