WORKSHOP: Collaborative Research: A Workshop on the Normative Implications of Empirical Research in Law and Courts

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

An interdisciplinary workshop will systematically probe how the many insights from the empirical study of law, courts, and judging have direct normative implications concerning how policy and institutions ought to be designed and executed. This workshop will bring together leading empirical researchers and will focus on a breadth of topics in law and courts. Empirical political scientists who study law and courts have not always made their work accessible to relevant policymakers. However, contemporary research on the context of the judicial process has produced numerous insights that could be useful in policymaking. The question guiding the workshop is: How can these empirical findings be used to make judgments about how judicial processes, institutions, and policies ought to be designed, operated, and executed? The PIs will produce an edited volume from this workshop that will disseminate research in a framework that could prove useful to policymakers. The workshop's intellectual merit rests in engaging in interdisciplinary field-building that will highlight how academic, empirical research can be directly relevant to broader policy debates. The workshop's broader impact would be in demonstrating how empirical research is directly relevant to policymakers and the public. With appropriate dissemination, it could contribute to efficient and effective judicial institutions and processes. The workshop will bring together a truly diverse and interdisciplinary mix of scholars, including senior and junior men and women, some from Ph.D. granting departments and some from B.A. institutions.