
Legal geography has certain methodological peculiarities that make it useful to provide geographers with a ‘methodological compass’ to guide them in their legal-geographical explorations. After identifying the main force fields acting in legal geography, the article discusses the most appropriate research methods for each of these fields. These methods are seen as the outcome of a twofold shift away from the ordinary research techniques of human geography: adaptation and appropriation. Within this framework, a number of variations and deviations on specific themes and approaches are possible, as it is illustrated through the analysis of legal-geographical research on illegal phenomena.