Systematic literature review of legal design: Concepts, processes, and methods

Abstract

The emergence of legal design has recently raised considerable interest from both design and legal communities. The present study is based on a systematic review of the legal design in peer-reviewed publications from 2001 to 2021, to identify current knowledge of its concepts, processes, and methods in the literature. Our analysis found that legal design and design thinking are conceptually comparable as both possess a human-centred approach to innovation. However, due to the inherent nature of law and the legal system, legal design and design thinking processes and methods differ in practice. Notably, proactiveness and stakeholder-centred thinking are key concepts of legal design. Legal design emphasises interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to accommodate diverse stakeholders with competing priorities and to improve communication. Finally, drawing on the literature review, we conclude by reflecting on our analysis and raising further research questions for design practitioners and researchers.

Keywords:

• Legal design
• law
• human-centred design
• design thinking
• systematic review

Additional information

Funding

The government funded this study (Ministry of Science and ICT), supported also by the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. NRF-2018X1A3A1070163).

Notes on contributors

Sunghoon Chung

Sunghoon Chung is a Ph.D. researcher in the Graduate School of Technology and Innovation Management, Hanyang University. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Hanshin University in 2013 and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (Technology Management) from Chonnam National University in 2016. His research interest covers the area of technology and legal design for social innovation, including Proactive Law, Policy Prototyping, Regulatory Innovation, and Stakeholder-centered Design.

Jieun Kim

Jieun Kim is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Technology and Innovation Management, Hanyang University and co-directs DMI design value award-winning interdisciplinary lab - Imagine X since 2013. She has a BA in Industrial Design from KAIST (2007) and an MS and PHD in Industrial Engineering from Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Paris (2008/2011), followed by the Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2012) at Royal College of Art in London. She was a visiting associate professor at Human Communication Technologies Lab, University of British Columbia (2020). She served as a general co-chair of ACM TVX 2018 and continued to contribute to many international design and innovation management communities as reviewers and speakers. Her research interest covers the area of technology design for innovation, including design creativity and service design.