New Legal Realism: Empirical Law and Society

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Seeking to develop a rigorous, genuinely interdisciplinary approach to the empirical study of law.

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Stewart Macaulay leads a group of New Legal Realists who post on everything from law to the latest in jazz.

Visit our blog to refresh your understanding of Jerome Frank, to hear why law needs anthropology’s kind of empiricism, to get an update on Duke Ellington, and more!

From law on the books to law in action From law on the books to law in action

News and Events

Southwest Conference at the University of Arizona, April 20-21, 2012

Rights and Their Translation into Practice: Toward a Synthetic Framework

A series of two inter-disciplinary and international National Science Foundation funded conferences, the first focuses on global social, economic, and culture rights and the second on political and civil rights in the U.S. and globally. The first conference was held April 22-24, 2011. The second conference will be held in April 2012. Conference details here.

East Coast Workshop held at Princeton, May 20, 2011

Global Legal Regulation and Social Science Measurements: Balancing Critique and Pragmatism

Anthropologists, sociologists, lawyers, and policy scholars meet to assess how social science metrics are translated for global law, taking seriously the central new legal realist concern with appropriate translation of empirical research in legal settings. More East Coast Workshop details here.

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About NLR

The New Legal Realism Project (NLR) promotes rigorous and genuinely interdisciplinary scholarship on law in action, building from the law-and-society tradition. Law professors and lawyers often turn to social science research for help in resolving legal problems, but they usually do so without much social science training or expertise. On the other hand, social scientists who study legal issues can fail to appreciate the distinctive requirements of law and policy, resulting in failed attempts to apply social science to "real world" problems. NLR focuses on developing better, more sophisticated translations between law and social science. This is especially important as law increasingly turns to social science for guidance in dealing with crucial legal and policy issues. Sloppy or inaccurate interdisciplinary translation on these issues can have serious social effects.

NLR FAQ: How do I join NLR?

Answer: Like the "old" legal realism, the New Legal Realism is open to all who wish to participate. Our conversations take place in journals and books and working papers, at conferences and colloquia freely organized by interested scholars.

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Check out the latest NLR publications and working papers, and find cites to now-classic works!

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