NLR Events
New Legal Realism Events
Even before the inaugural conference in 2004, a group of scholars had begun to meet to discuss plans for a New Legal Realism (NLR) project. The initial planning meetings were held in Madison at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and in Chicago at the American Bar Foundation. Law and social science researchers from these two institutions were joined by scholars such as David Wilkins of the Harvard Law School and Martha Albertson Fineman from Emory University School of Law.
As a result of their initial discussions, the NLR planning group sponsored a panel entitled “Is It Time for a New Legal Realism?” at the 1997 Law & Society Association Meetings in St. Louis, Missouri. The panel drew a large audience of sociolegal scholars, who debated the issues involved in achieving high-quality translations of qualitative and quantitative empirical research in legal settings. One particular topic of discussion was the sometimes difficult relationship between scholarly traditions in the social sciences and in the legal academy.
Since the 1997 panel, there have been numerous NLR events. NLR conferences have focused on methodology, on the relationship between empirical research and legal theory, on legal approaches to poverty and land ownership, and on the legal treatment of gender-related issues in employment. NLR scholarship has been featured in panels held at the annual meetings of the American Association of Law Schools and the Law & Society Association. NLR scholars were active in forming a collaborative research network, supported by the Law & Society Association, focusing on “Realist and Empirical Legal Methods.”
For New Legal Realism Events click here.