Outside Resources
Socio-legal Organizations
Law and Society Association
The Law and Society Association, based at the University of Massachusetts and founded in 1964, is a group of scholars from many fields and countries, interested in the place of law in social, political, economic and cultural life. Members bring training in law, sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology, economics, and history as well as in other related areas to the study of sociolegal phenomena.
American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit membership association dedicated to advancing sociology as a scientific discipline and profession serving the public good.
Baldy Center
The Christopher Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, is an internationally recognized institute that supports the interdisciplinary study of law and legal institutions. The Center maintains cooperative ties to other interdisciplinary research centers at UB and co-sponsors a regional network of sociolegal scholars in New York and Canada. The Baldy Center hosts distinguished scholars from around the world as visitors, consultants, and conference participants.
Canadian Law and Society Association The CLSA is a group of scholars from many disciplines who are interested in the place of law in social, political, economic and cultural life. CLSA members bring training in law, history, sociology, political science, criminology, psychology, anthropology, and economics as well as in other related areas of socio-legal inquiry. Among its activities, the CLSA publishes the Canadian Journal of Law & Society, sponsors an annual conference and graduate student workshop, awards prizes for socio-legal scholarship, and generally works to encourage socio-legal inquiry in Canada and internationally.
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies - University of Oxford
The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies is an internationally recognized research institution devoted to the understanding of law in its social, political, and economic context. Since its founding in 1972 by the Economic and Social Research Council in order to develop the field of socio-legal studies in the UK, the Centre has grown to become an official department of the University of Oxford and a global leader in its field.
Empirical Legal Studies Blog
Georgetown Law Center for the Study of the Legal Profession
The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession
at Georgetown Law is devoted to
* promoting interdisciplinary scholarship on the profession informed by awareness of the dynamics of modern practice;
* providing students with a sophisticated understanding of the opportunities and challenges of a modern legal career;and
* furnishing members of the bar, particularly those in organizational decision-making positions, broad perspectives on trends and developments in practice.
Griffith Socio-Legal Research Centre
The Socio-Legal Research Centre investigates the origins, operations and effects of legal regimes, policies and practices.
The Legal History Blog
Law Professor Blog
LSAC Research Grants
The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) Research Grant Program funds research on a wide variety of topics related to the mission of LSAC. Specifically included in the program’s scope are projects investigating precursors to legal training, selection into law schools, legal education, and the legal profession. To be eligible for funding, a research project must inform either the process of selecting law students or legal education itself in a demonstrable way.
The program welcomes proposals for research proceeding from any of a variety of methodologies, a potentially broad range of topics, and varying time frames. Proposals will be judged on the importance of the questions addressed, their relevance to the mission of LSAC, the quality of the research designs, and the capacity of the researchers to carry out the project.
Application deadlines are February 1 and September 1.
Northwestern University Center for Legal Studies Directed by ABF Research Professor Laura Beth Nielsen, the Center for Legal Studies at Northwestern University provides an environment where scholars and students combine the study of legal issues with the methodology and perspectives of the social sciences and humanities.