Law Commons^™

Replicability In Empirical Legal Research, Jason Chin, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

As part of a broader methodological reform movement, scientists are increasingly interested in improving the replicability of their research. Replicability allows others to perform replications to explore potential errors and statistical issues that might call the original results into question. Little attention, however, has been paid to the state of replicability in the field of empirical legal research (ELR). Quality is especially important in this field because empirical legal researchers produce work that is regularly relied upon by courts and other legal bodies. In this review article, we summarize the current state of ELR relative to the broader movement towards …

The (Joseph) Stories Of Newmyer And Cover: Hero Or Tragedy?, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

Kent Newmyer's classics Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: Statesman of the Old Republic and John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court are important stories about the architects and heroes of the rule of law in America. In Newmyer's account, Story played a crucial role preserving the republic and building a legal nation out of rival states, and Newmyer's Story is fundamentally important for students of American history. But in Robert Cover's account in Justice Accused on northern judges' deference to slavery, Story is an anti-hero. Sometimes Story stayed silent. In Prigg v. Pennsylvania, Story overvalued formalistic …

The Transparency Of Quantitative Empirical Legal Research (2018–2020), Jason Chin, Kathryn Zeiler, Natali Dilevski, Alexander Holcombe, Rosemary Gatfield- Jeffries, Ruby Bishop, Simine Vazire, Sarah Schiavone

Faculty Scholarship

Scientists are increasingly concerned with making their work easy to verify and build upon. Associated practices include sharing data, materials, and analytic scripts, and preregistering protocols. This has been referred to as a “credibility revolution”. The credibility of empirical legal research has been questioned in the past due to its distinctive peer review system and because the legal background of its researchers means that many often are not trained in study design or statistics. Still, there has been no systematic study of transparency and credibilityrelated characteristics of published empirical legal research. To fill this gap and provide an estimate of …

An Introduction To “Critical Legal Research: The Next Wave”, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

This symposium continues and sustains the exchange of ideas initiated at a panel presentation offered at the 2021 American Association of Law Schools (“AALS”) Annual Meeting in January 2021. The panel was titled Critical Legal Research: The Next Wave, and here we advance and extend that conversation with written contributions from the panelists.

The symposium and panel are outgrowths of truly organic collaboration that sprang from the passion for critical legal research felt by both the panel’s honorees—Professors Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic—and an exceptional group of academic law librarian scholars—Yasmin Sokkar Harker, Julie Krishnaswami, Grace Lo, Nicholas Mignanelli, …

A Cross-Cutting Public Law Scholar For The Ages, Nicole Huberfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Thanks to Fred Shapiro’s labor, we can see that the under-fifty category of most-cited legal scholars better represents the lawyering population than the all-time rankings of legal scholars, as it has more modern and diverse scholarship, and it has a higher percentage of women than the all-time rankings of legal scholars. Anyone who knows Professor Abbe Gluck’s work cannot be surprised that she is included among the most-cited scholars under the age of fifty. ¹ Abbe is a force of nature, a brilliant legal mind with a diabolical work ethic. Even if she ceased publishing today, her scholarly legacy would …

Improving The Credibility Of Empirical Legal Research: Practical Suggestions For Researchers, Journals, And Law Schools, Jason Chin, Alexander Dehaven, Tobias Heycke, Alexander Holcombe, David Mellor, Justin Pickett, Crystal Steltenpohl, Simine Vazire, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

Fields closely related to empirical legal research are enhancing their methods to improve the credibility of their findings. This includes making data, analysis code, and other materials openly available, and preregistering studies. Empirical legal research appears to be lagging behind other fields. This may be due, in part, to a lack of meta-research and guidance on empirical legal studies. The authors seek to fill that gap by evaluating some indicators of credibility in empirical legal research, including a review of guidelines at legal journals. They then provide both general recommendations for researchers, and more specific recommendations aimed at three commonly …