The core methodology of anthropological analysis, ethnography, offers a valuable way of understanding international law in practice. Ethnography is essentially observation of a small social situation in context. It relies on informal conversations, more or less formal interviews, and participation. The analysis of a micro-setting requires extensive research into its broader political, economic, cultural, and historical context. The researcher needs to understand both the nature of the setting and its framework.  She should explore who is present, how they are interacting, what are the constraints on membership in the setting, who exercises power over whom, what kinds of social networks link the participants to each other and to wider social structures, and how this setting has developed and changed over time.

Learning to do ethnographic research requires practice and is best done through apprenticeship. However, there are some initial guidelines that help to orient students toward doing this kind of research. It is essential to pay attention to what people say, the words they use, the categories of thought that are shared in the setting, and the differences among regular, intermittent, and marginal participants. Moments of conflict and contestation provide valuable insight into the underlying structure of the group

Anthropologists are increasingly using a multi-sited approach to understanding transnational social phenomena. They may look at two locations in a single process, such as the home and settlement areas for migrants, or Geneva and New York as sites of UN activity. They are also working to move across scales, examining how local, national, regional, and international organizations operate and influence one another. Understanding how a local NGO is influenced by international donors, universal human rights discourse, local political conditions, and prevailing cultural assumptions, for example, is critical to contemporary ethnography. At a time when these analytically separable scales are in constant interaction, developing scale-jumping methods for studying micro-social situations is essential. This workshop will explore some of these newer methodologies as applied to international legal settings.