Panel 5 Panel: Studying How Institutions Mediate Law: New Legal Realist Methods

Chair:

Gregory C Shaffer (Loyola University, Chicago)

Discussant:

Joyce Sterling (University of Denver)Papers:

Problematizing Stakeholder Participation in New Governance Reform: Public Housing Resident Involvement in HOPE VI Redevelopment
Lisa T. Alexander (University of Wisconsin)

Language Structure and Law School Reform
Elizabeth Mertz (American Bar Foundation/University of Wisconsin)

After Wordplay: The Principle of the Selfish Institution and the Idea of Law as Governance
Victoria Frances Nourse (University of Wisconsin)

Abstract:

Legal scholars and social scientists are examining the way institutions mediate law, from a number of vantages. Predictably, their perspectives sometimes differ, reflecting divergent disciplinary concerns. The panelists in this session discuss how best to understand the way institutions affect law “on the ground.” They also consider the issues involved in translating between legal and social science concerns, a crucial step in developing new legal realist methods. There have been a number of proposed approaches to legal interventions in institutions, from “comparative institutional analysis” to “new governance.” Realist/empirical methods can help us explore how the institutional level incorporates and/or resists “top down” and other efforts at legal reform.