| The online disclosure of judgment documents provides researchers with a convenient way to observe judicial practice. Research findings based on content analysis of criminal law literature published in journals show that online disclosure of judgment documents promotes the development of the jurisprudential study, but cannot fully meet the needs for the exploration of judicial experience, and they also expose the shortcomings of the jurisprudential study in China in the application of research methods. Researches using judgment documents have many deficiencies in document collection, sampling, research design, data analysis, and application of research findings and conclusions, and they fail to pay attention to the special methodology for using judgment documents as a special data source. In view of the actual legal data environment in China, judgment documents will remain the main data source of empirical study for a long period of time. On the basis of following basic research norms of empirical study, Chinese researchers should correctly understand data from judgment documents, adopt various methods to deal with such problems as the questionable representativeness of judgment documents, and move towards research truly with big data thinking. |
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