Expanding knowledge & advancing justice

The American Bar Foundation is an organization dedicated to advancing justice through rigorous research on the law, legal processes, and the law's impact on our society. More »

Women waiting for water at refugee camp in Chad. Photo by Mia Farrow used with permission.

ABF scholar John Hagan has produced ground breaking work on the causes and prevention of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and in the Balkans. His empirical research places the crime of mass rape in the examination of genocide and crimes against humanity. He will receive the Stockholm Prize in Criminology on June 23 and is the co-organizer of an international conference entitled "Sexual Violence as International Crime: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Evidence," June 16-18, at The Hague.

Watch Video of John Hagan discussing his research on Darfur

Watch Video of James Heckman featured in Chicago Tonight segment on early childhood education

Latest news More news »

Hague Conference: Social Science Research Seen To Play Key Role In Building Institutions of International Criminal Law Jun 22, 2009

Innovations in evidence gathering can help hold leaders accountable for sexual violence and genocide Chicago, IL (Monday June 22, 2009) At an International Colloquium on Sexual violence as… more

International Criminal Court Prosecutor And U.N. High Commissioner On Human Rights: The World Community Denies Severity Of Rape As War Crime Jun 17, 2009

A Partnership of the American Bar Foundation and the University of Illinois College of Law Contact: Lucinda Underwood E-mail: lunderwood@abfn.org Phone: (312) 988-6573 x0 Contact: Charlotte… more

New Study Shows How Systemic Financial Crises Trigger Global Actions And State Reactions May 27, 2009

A Partnership of the American Bar Foundation and the University of Illinois College of Law FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Terry Halliday E-mail: Halliday@abfn.org Phone: … more

2009 Summer Research Diversity Fellowship Sponsorship Opportunities

Every summer our prize-winning research faculty hosts internships, through the Summer Research Diversity Fellowship program, for four highly qualified undergraduates from diverse backgrounds who have expressed interest in a career in law.

We invite you and your firm to join us in supporting the diversity initiative of the American Bar Foundation. A dozen law firms and several foundations have participated in and supported this program over the past two summers, in which we raised over $50,000 in support of eight summer interns. We hope that you will join this list of supporters by contributing to the 2009 Summer Research Diversity Fellowships.

For more information on how you and your firm can participate, please click here.