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Shari Seidman Diamond

Shari Seidman Diamond headshot

Research Professor

  • 750 N. Lake Shore Drive
  • 4th Floor
  • Chicago, IL 60611

Joint appointment

Howard J. Trienens Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University School of Law

Education

Ph.D., Social Psychology, Northwestern University; J.D., University of Chicago

Curriculum vitae

Research focus

Legal decision-making, including conflicts between expertise and impartiality; discretion and control; equality and individuation; and science and law. Research addresses how these conflicts influence jury and judicial decision-making, judgments about fairness, and how courts use and fail to make use of scientific evidence.

Projects

Building on the Arizona Filming Project
Latest finding: Sep 10, 2008, with Mary R. Rose
A variety of studies have been conducted based upon the deliberations of jurors in the 50 civil trials in the Arizona Filming Project. Ongoing studies are focusing on how juries handle comparative…
Condemn-Nation: The Social Psychological Foundations of the Kelo Backlash
Latest finding: Jan 23, 2008, with Janice Nadler
This project seeks to understand and explain the extreme public reaction to the Kelo case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that governments are permitted to force the sale of private property…

All projects »


Publications

Achieving Diversity of the Jury: Jury Size and the Peremptory Challenge
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
Eminent Domain and the Psychology of Property Rights: Proposed Use, Subjective Attachment, and Taker Identity
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
“Offstage Behavior: Real Jurors’ Scrutiny of Non-testimonial Conduct”
DePaul Law Review

All publications »


Presentations

Diversity on the Jury: Impact, Sources, and Unresolved Issues
Oct 2009
Do Juries Apply the Law? Yes and No
Mar 2009
Coding Group Deliberation Across Multiple Cases: Jury Behavior in 50 Real Cases
Mar 2009

All presentations »


Professional Service & Recognition

  • Faculty Director, JD/PhD Program, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Law and Society Association 
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Society for Empirical Legal Studies
  • Member, Editorial Boards, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies; Law and Human Behavior; Law & Policy; Psychology, Law & Crime; Psychology, Public Policy, & Law; and Justice System Journal
  • Member, Advisory Board, Evidence & Evidentiary Procedure, SSRN
  • Member, 7th Circuit American Jury Project Commission, 2005-
  • Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science/ABA National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists (NCLS), 2005-
  • Member, American Jury Project, 2003-2005 (task: writing ABA Principles for Juries and Jury Trials— adopted 2/14/05)
  • Member, Advisory Committee for the Directorate on the Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences, National Science Foundation, 2002-