Why is law so slow to get what’s really happening? Why is it often so far away from our real-world experiences? The New Legal Realism movement springs from this frustration. The social sciences study how law really works, using systematic methods. But lawyers and policymakers don’t often use that social science knowledge. Law students are never taught about the full range of social science that they could draw on to solve legal problems. At best, our lawyers and judges grab at bits and pieces — some statistics here, interviews there, observations, experiments — all jumbled up and often just plain wrong. Social scientists may be baffled about what lawyers need from them — or how law approaches the world. And THAT’S why we need New Legal Realism, or “NLR.” NLR doesn’t choose one method or one kind of social science. It doesn’t ignore the standards social sciences use to judge good research. But it also doesn’t ignore how law works, or how lawyers talk. Law uses its own weird language. So do the social sciences. It’s time to find more productive ways to communicate, so that law can get real in addressing our problems. That’s the job a new generation of NLR scholars is tackling. Join our conversation!

In 2016, three books that laid out foundations for NLR appeared: The New Legal Realism, Volumes 1 & 2 from Cambridge University Press, and Translating the Social World for Law from Oxford University Press. Season 1 of our NLR podcast features interviews with authors from these books.

In 2020, our podcast started its second season to mark a transition to the new generation of NLR scholars. 

Episodes

Season 4:
–December 2023: An Interview with John Bliss
–July 2023: A Conversation with Alexandra Huneeus

Season 3:
-September 2022: A Conversation with Jeffrey Omari
-August 2022: An Interview with Deepa Das Acevedo

Season 2:
-August 2021: New Legal Realism and CRN 28: An Interview with Riaz Tejani and Emily Taylor Poppe
-April 2021: Theoretically-Informed Empirical Research in the Legal Academy: Shauhin Talesh’s New Legal Realist Vision
-January 2021:  Putting Empirical Research into Action: Bernadette Atuahene’s New Legal Realism
-October 2020: Combining Theory, Empirical Research, Doctrine, and Policy: An Interview with Thomas W. Mitchell

Season 1
– January 2018: Why Should We Care About New Legal Realism?  Interview with Michael McCann
-February 2018:   Introduction to Volume 2: Interview with Heinz Klug
-March 2018:  On Indicators and Translation: Interview with Sally Engle Merry
-December 2018: NLR’s Big Umbrella:  Interview with Stewart Macaulay and Elizabeth Mertz