Judicature Editorial on ELS

The most recent issue of Judicature has an editorial on the ELS "movement."  The editorial notes that ELS is emerging "as a distinct subfield within the legal academy, a development with potentially profound implications both for legal education and, in the long term, for the legal system itself."  Well, we certainly hope so. 

This article is an important development because Judicature (published by the American Judicature Society (AJS))  has a influential readership that includes legal and social science academics, judges, and practicing lawyers.   The AJS editors noted both The Journal of Empirical Legal Studies and the ELS Blog.  This quote reflects reflects why they are optimistic about the future of ELS:

As a new generation of attorneys, judges, and legal scholars [influenced by ELS] begins to think more systematically about legal matters, and to integrate insights from the social sciences into their work, those insights stand to play a more important role in efforts to reshape and reform the legal system. To take but one example, denunciations of courts and judges tend to share the assumption that courts are very powerful.These critiques start from the premise that, when courts rule on an issue, they largely determine the outcome on that issue. In contrast to this view, empirical research by political scientists and others on the implementation and impact of court decisions raises serious questions about that assumption. Greater attention to—and continuation of—empirical research on such dynamics holds the promise of betterinformed debates about the role and powers of courts.

Hat tip to an anonymous reader.

Comments

[William Henderson]

Geoff, that is a very good question. Several commentators, including Judge Posner, have opined that doctrinal work is still being produced, though mostly at "second tier" schools. This is not a safe equilibrium, however. When schools with higher pay and prestige and lower teaching loads don't hire doctrinal scholars, we can expect fewer scholars willing to produce it.

This is one of the issues that Judge Harry Edwards raises in his multiple articles on the "growing disjunction" between the legal academy and the legal profession. Judge Edwards thinks the doctrinalists (e.g., authors of treatises) have been squeezed out of elite law schools. bh.

[Geoff McGovern]

Good to see, though it raises the familiar query of whether ELS is a subfield.

But let me ask a different question, one that was raised at a conference I attended at Harvard Law for alumni with teaching interests. The faculty participants had only positive things to say about my ELS inquiries; but the question a fellow alum asked was: what role is left for doctrine?