Empirical Legal Studies

Invitation to Empirical Workshop at 2009 Annual SEALS Conference

[From our good friend Ben Barton:]

Greetings.  This summer at SEALS (The Southeastern Association of Law Schools Conference) we are having an all day "how to" session on empirical legal studies on Friday, August 7th.  As part of that day we are planning an hour and a half session for small groups of panelists and presenters to meet to workshop new empirical research projects.  We are asking potential presenters to send in either a draft of a paper or a 4 page prospectus explaining their idea, so that the drafts/proposals can be selected and circulated ahead of time to a discussion group.  We will be favoring work that is still in a formative stage (i.e. not accepted for publication).  The workshop's emphasis will be on offering specific suggestions and constructive criticism.  Selected papers will be grouped for presentation by subject area.   

The current list of presenters who will be participating in the workshop as readers and commentators is quite impressive, including Professor Kenneth Dau-Schmidt, Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington; Professor Thomas Eaton, University of Georgia School of Law; Professor Theodore Eisenberg, Cornell Law School; Professor Michelle Harner, University of Nebraska College of Law; Professor Minna Kotkin, Brooklyn Law School; Professor Colleen Medill, University of Nebraska College of Law; Professor David Mitchell, University of Missouri School of Law; Professor Lori Ringhand, University of Georgia School of Law; Joshua D. Wright, George Mason University; Professor Jeffrey Yates, University of Georgia, Department of Political Science; and Professor Ben Barton, The University of Tennessee College of Law.

If you are interested in participating, please send your submission to both Lori Ringhand (ringhand@uga.edu) and Ben Barton (bbarton@utk.edu) by June 15th.  Authors whose papers are selected will be notified by July 5. You are welcome to submit a paper even if you are not currently registered to attend the SEALS conference, but authors whose papers are selected for presentation will be expected to attend. The SEALS Conference is held every year at a lovely beachfront location.  This year it is being held at the Ritz Carlton Palm Beach. Registration and additional information about the conference can be found at: http://sealslawschools.org/.

Cyber Cesspool or Marketplace of Ideas: Research Opportunity

Brian Leiter posts the following:

A partner at a Chicago law firm has recently called to my attention that the on-line ABA Journal is increasingly playing host to "comments sections" on articles that are full of sexist and racist abuse, as well as just general unprofessional nastiness and creepiness.  The editors have been shockingly stubborn about cleaning up this mess.  The partner who called this to my attention reports that she and a number of colleagues are interested in supporting some empirical research into whether the abusive comments on the ABA Journal site are falling into certain (unsurprising) patterns, namely, disproportionately targetting women and minorities who are mentioned in stories.  It would also be useful to measure the frequency of abusive comments and their character.  If you have the pertinent expertise, and would be interested in looking into this, please e-mail me and I will put you in touch with the Chicago attorney interested in the project.  She reports that she and her colleagues will be able to provide financial support for research assistance needed for this project.

Indiana Law Receives $35 Million Naming Gift; University Foundation Provides 100% Matching Funds

Today is pretty special.  Indiana Entrepreneur Michael Maurer (IU Law '67) has donated $35 million to the Law School, henceforth renaming it the Michael Maurer School of Law.  During the press conference, Indiana University President Michael McRobbie reported that the gift is eligible for Indiana University matching funds, "effectively doubling the $35 million gift."  This builds upon the $25 million Lilly Foundation gift we received last year, which also resulted in additional matching funds from the University. 

Michael ("Mickey") Maurer stated that scholarship money he received as a second year student at Indiana Law, which came from a law firm with several successful alumni, was the inspiration for the gift.  The full story from the Indiana Business Journal (a publication Maurer owns) is here.

LSA/ABF/NSF Law and Social Science Dissertation Fellowship and Mentoring Program

The December 21 deadline for this unique fellowship opportunity is fast approaching:

 

The Law and Society Association, in collaboration with the American Bar Foundation and the National Science Foundation, seeks applications for the Law and Social Science Dissertation Fellowship and Mentoring Program (LSS Fellowship).

 

Awards

Fellowships are held in residence at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago, IL where Fellows are expected to participate in the intellectual life of the ABF, including participation in a weekly seminar series. LSS Fellows will receive a stipend of $25,000 per year beginning fall 2009 and are eligible for up to two years of support. Fellows will attend LSA annual meetings in both years of the fellowship and the Graduate Student Workshop in the first year of the fellowship. Fellows will receive up to $1,500 for research and travel expenses each year. Relocation expenses up to $2,500 may be reimbursed one time.

Eligibility:

Third and fourth year graduate students who specialize in the field of law and social science and whose research interests include law and inequality are invited to apply. Fellowship applicants should be students in a Ph.D. program in a social science department or an interdisciplinary program. Humanities students pursuing empirically-based social science dissertations are welcome to apply. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible to apply.

Application Materials Required:

Applicants should submit: (1) a 1-2 page letter of application; (2) a 2-3 page description of a research project or interest that relates to law and inequality (broadly defined) with a statement of how the applicant became interested in the research topic; (3) a resume or curriculum vitae; (4) a writing sample (a paper written for a graduate-level course or dissertation prospectus); (5) three letters of recommendation from faculty members (including one from the faculty member who will serve as the departmental liaison -- typically the applicant’s advisor).

 

Please send TWO complete sets of application materials by December 21, 2008. One set to Mary McClintock, Law and Society Association, University of Massachusetts, 40 Campus Center Way, Amherst, MA 01003-9244 and the other to Roz Caldwell, Program Associate, American Bar Foundation, 750 N. Lake Shore Drive – 4th Floor, Chicago, IL, 60611.

For more information, please contact Mary McClintock at LSA, lsa@lawandsociety.org  or Laura Beth Nielsen at lnielsen@abfn.org.

Shelton Prize -- Call For Nominations

Steven Willborn, Dean at the Univ. of Nebraska College of Law, recently mentioned that he thought information on the Law School Admission Council's (LSAC) Shelton Prize would interest ELS Blog readers. I immediately agreed and reprint the nomination announcement below. Please note that nominations are due by 1 February 2009 for consideration for the 2009 Shelton Prize. It's nice to see such recognition for and attention to empirical legal research.

Philip D. Shelton Prize for Outstanding Legal Education Research

The Shelton Prize is for outstanding published empirical research related to legal education. The first prize of $5,000 will be awarded in 2009 for research published in 2007 or 2008. The winner(s) will be invited to present their work at the LSAC annual meeting, which will be held in San Antonio, TX, 27-28 May 2009. Winners will be announced in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Nominations are now being accepted for this prize. Please send a copy of the nominated article and brief information about the author(s) to:

Stephen T. Schreiber
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
LSAC
662 Penn Street
Newtown, PA  18940
sschreiber@LSAC.org

Nominations must be received by no later than 1 February 2009 to be considered for the 2009 Shelton Prize.

Call for Papers -- 2009 Midwest Political Science Ass'n Annual Meeting

Jeff Segal (SUNY--Stony Brook, Poli Sci) reminded me about the following Call for Papers.

"Ask your favorite political scientist what the biggest political science conference is, and she'll tell you it's the American Political Science Association. Ask her what the best political science conference is, particularly for empirical work, and she'll tell you it's the Midwest Political Science Association meeting, held every April in the beautiful Palmer House in Chicago.

The Midwest Political Science Association, like most academic associations, charges higher conference registration rates for nonmembers than to members. Hoping to continue to increase attendance by people outside of political science and related fields at its annual meeting, the Association will begin charging registrants who 1) have academic appointments outside of political science or related fields (policy, public administration and political economy) and 2) do not have a PhD in political science or the same related fields, conference registration rates equal to member registration rates.

 In addition, the Association grants, on request, a substantial number of conference registration waivers for first time participants who are outside the discipline.

 The call for papers for the 2009 meeting, due October 10, is at http://www.mpsanet.org/~mpsa/index.html.

 Great seeing everyone at CELS, and hope to see you in Chicago."

Call For Papers -- International Conference on Empirical Legal Studies

My colleague, Ted Eisenberg (Cornell), and Talia Fisher (Tel Aviv University) are calling for papers for an international conference on empirical legal studies scheduled for 26 March 2009, at Tel Aviv University Law School in Israel. The conference will include three sessions. One session will focus on empirical analysis of criminal law and criminal procedure. Another session will dwell on empirical research on civil law and procedure. The final session will be devoted to methodological and conceptual issues regarding quantitative analysis and empirical research. All conference sessions will be in English.

For those interested in submitting papers for consideration, the deadline for paper submissions is 1 December 2008. Papers should be submitted to either:

ted-eisenberg@lawschool.cornell.edu  or  tafisher@post.tau.ac.il

Authors of accepted papers will be notified by 10 January 2009. The conference is open to all who wish to attend.

RAND's ICJ is Hiring

Colleagues at RAND's Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) asked me to post the following job announcement for a Civil Justice Researcher.

"The RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) is looking for researchers at all levels of experience who can support, expand, and extend our research agenda on civil justice, business, and the law. We encourage applications from persons with strong training in empirical legal research, who possess an interest in building our portfolio of work in related areas, and who bring a collaborative, entrepreneurial spirit consistent with the culture of the ICJ."

Those interested should direct all inquiries to RAND and reference Job ID# 2221.

Conducting Empirical Legal Scholarship: The Advanced Course, October 24-26, 2008

 

On Friday, October 24, 2008 through Sunday, October 26, 2008 Lee Epstein and Andrew Martin will be teaching a workshop called "Conducting Empirical Legal Scholarship: The Advanced Course." This workshop will be held in Chicago, and is co-sponsored by Northwestern University and Washington University. The workshop is now open for registration at:

  http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/conferences/empiricalworkshop.html

The workshop is designed for those who have some experience with empirical legal research, and an understanding of elementary statistics (at the level taught in the introductory workshop). Topics to be covered will include: multiple regression, regression models for limited dependent variables, presenting results from non-linear models, data visualization and graphics, and matching methods for causal inference.

Please visit the website for all logistical details. Feel free to contact Andrew Martin (admartin@wustl.edu) with substantive questions.

Funding for Civil Litigation Research

The ABA Section of Litigation invites applications to The Litigation Research Fund which makes individual awards of between $5,000 and $20,000 to support original and practical scholarly work that significantly advances the understanding of civil litigation in the United States.  The Fund was established in 2007 to support research and writing projects relevant to litigation policy and practice, with preference given to works with an empirical foundation. The first round of funding in early 2008 resulted in seven grants totaling approximately $70,000.  Priority will be given to applications received by August 31, 2008.  For additional information, see http://www.abanet.org/litigation/researchfund.