Empirical Legal Studies

Member for

11 months 3 weeks

Seminar – 2 hours. An increasingly popular trend in legal scholarship is the use of data (quantitative, qualitative, and, most recently, geospatial) to inform legal theories and socio-political debates. Indeed, it is rare today to come across a law review article or Supreme Court opinion that does not reference or rely upon some analysis of data to make a legal argument. Therefore, being able to be a critical consumer of empirical legal analysis is a skill that every lawyer should have. In this class you will learn about the three types of data analysis (quantitative, qualitative, and geospatial) commonly used in Empirical Legal Studies. Then, you will read scholarly papers that utilize these analyses to get a firm understanding of which techniques are most (and least) persuasive in making legal arguments, and how this can change depending on the subject matter and audience. To fortify your understanding of how to apply data analysis in legal arguments, you will choose one article to present to the class, explaining and critiquing the author's methods. Finally, you will submit a research prospectus on a topic of your choosing and also provide substantive feedback on one other student's prospectus. The research prospectus should include a literature review of the available empirical legal studies in your area as well as two or three *original* tables, charts or graphs that rely on publicly-available data and advance your argument. All students will present their research prospectuses to the class.

Final Assessment: Paper
Grading Mode:  Letter Grading
Graduation Requirements: May satisfy Advanced Writing Requirement with instructor's permission.

Advanced Writing
Maybe
Units
2
Professional Skills
No
Course Number
298C
Active
Yes

Cluster

Unit 16
No