Empirical Legal Studies

Northwestern University Law Review—3rd Annual Empirical Legal Scholarship Issue: Call for Papers

If evidence of empirical legal studies’ growth was not already obvious enough in the peer-reviewed world, traditional student law reviews also evidence a turn toward ELS as well. And no more so than perhaps the Northwestern University Law Review which is pleased to announce its third annual issue dedicated to empirical legal scholarship, to be published in Spring 2021. According to the student editors, “we welcome pieces making use of any and all empirical tools—including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods—to illuminate and engage questions of legal interest.”

“The Northwestern University Law Review accepts empirical articles on an exclusive basis only. The exclusive submission window for the Volume 115 Empirical Issue will open on February 15, 2020 and run until April 1, 2020. All authors will be informed by April 15, 2020 at the latest as to whether their piece has been selected to be sent out for peer review. At the final stage, authors will be informed no later than June 15, 2020 as to whether their piece has been selected for publication.”

“Interested authors must submit Articles and Essays via email to the Volume 115 Empirical Articles Editor at [email protected]. Please submit the Article as a .doc or .docx file with a cover letter or similar email and CV." (For additional details click here.)

Law School Class Recordings and Student Access Policies: Data From Down Under

Recording classes and granting students liberal access to them are increasingly the norm in universities and law schools around the world. At the same time, however, mounting anecdotal evidence implies that increasing student access to class recordings corresponds with decreasing student class attendance. A recent paper, If You Record, They Will Not Come--But Does It Really Matter? Student Attendance and Lecture Recording at an Australian Law School, by Natalie Skead (Univ. Western Aus.) et al., presents and discusses results from a study that set out to test this “conventional wisdom” with a bit more rigor.

The paper is noted for its mixed methods which include a student survey, focus groups, and a manual count of observable student class attendance. Not only do the researchers' data speak to their specific research question (that is, the relation between student attendance rates and class recording access) but they also permit researchers to assess a derivative question—whether discrepancies exist between student attendance self-reports and actual observable student class attendance.

What the researchers found is that student access to class recordings is “strongly associated” with decreased student class attendance. As it relates to the reliability of self-reported survey data, the paper notes that the results “indicate a disparity between the high rates of self-reported attendance and the actual attendance count at lectures.”

Three quick closing points. First, while unlikely germane to the findings, it remains important to note that in Australia, and elsewhere (but unlike in the United States), law school includes both undergraduate as well as graduate students. Second, even assuming, arguendo, that the paper’s core findings hold, specific policy consequences relating to student access to class recordings are not obvious. Third, this research illustrates, yet again, why researchers need to approach self-reported survey data with caution given persistent reliability concerns.

Turning a Typical Stata Work Session Into A Do-File

Maybe others already knew this; I did not. As a multi-decade Stata user I've periodically had to transfer various past commands from my active window to a particular project's do-file. Doing so archives my analytical work on a project, helps me recall how I generated a specific set of results/tables/graphs, etc., and, concurrently, facilitates subsequent replication efforts (by me or anyone else). Until now to do so I've simply, and in an admittedly plodding-like and wholly inefficient manner, essentially hand "cut-and-paste" from the active window onto a separate do-file window. What I did not know--until a few hours ago--is that Stata has "buried" a way to accomplish all of this seamlessly and with a few mouse-clicks. This short Stata YouTube video (click here) shows how it's done.

CELS 2020--Dates/Location

Reflecting empirical legal studies' increasingly global footprint, I am delighted to announce that the Society for Empirical Legal Studies' 15th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS) will be hosted by the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, take place on October 2-3, 2020, in Toronto, Canada, and co-organized by professors Albert Yoon, Anthony Niblett, and Andrew Green. More information on the call for papers will soon follow.