Using Mixed Methods to Explore the Legal Consciousness of Judges

National judges are expected to function as decentralized European Union judges upholding European Union law in national cases when necessary. For this purpose, the European legislators and the European Court of Justice have developed a number of legal principles and mechanisms which lay down what is expected of national judges concerning the application of European Union law. These expectations are quite high and may not necessarily reflect how European Union law is applied in practice. To better understand how national judges experience the application of European Union law in their daily work and what they think and know about their role as European Union judge, the author of this contribution together with a number of colleagues applied a mixed method approach using a questionnaire as well as narrative interviews. Moreover, the research had a comparative element as judges from the Netherlands and the German state (Land) of North Rhine-Westphalia were the object of the research. Applying mixed methods was a very fruitful approach which gave us insight into the legal consciousness of national judges with regard to European Union law, meaning their experiences with knowledge of and attitudes toward the law of the European Union. The following short description of the research process is meant as an inspiration for students to do their own empirical research in general and to use mixed methods in particular. It addresses the practical difficulties I experienced while doing post-doc research.