Faculty Research
SLS faculty are high-impact scholars whose research defines the cutting edge.
Consistently recognized for their excellence and influence on how people think, on public policy and on the world, Stanford Law scholar-educators are committed to research that crosses disciplines and defines the frontiers of law. SLS faculty are among the most prolific legal scholars in the country, producing widely used casebooks, scholarly articles, empirical studies, working papers, editorials, briefs and academic and popular books on everything from cyberlaw to constitutional law to racial profiling.
The Legal Aggregate

Stanford’s Deborah Sivas on Supreme Court’s Decision to Limit EPA’s Powers to Fight Climate Change
In a 6 to 3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA reduced the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate without “clear congressional authorization.” With divided and often stalled government, what does this mean for environmental protections in the U.S. and climate change…
Read MoreProtecting Reproductive Health Information after Fall of Roe v. Wade
Stanford’s Robert Weisberg on the January 6 Hearings and New Testimony
Dobbs and the Supreme Court’s Wrong Turn on Constitutional Rights
Guns and Abortion: Stanford Experts on Two Constitutional Earthquakes
A Constitutional Earthquake: Stanford’s Jane Schacter on SCOTUS Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade, Ending Constitutional Right to an Abortion
Packed and Loaded: Stanford’s John Donohue on Supreme Court’s Guns Decision
Faculty on Point
Faculty Scholarship Featured in Stanford Lawyer Magazine
Empiricists At Work
More than a quarter of the SLS faculty conducts empirical research in pursuit of legal insights and solutions to pressing societal challenges.
Robert M. Daines
Law and finance, including CEO pay, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, mandatory disclosure reputations, IPOs, shareholder voting, and takeover defense
John J. Donohue III
The impact of law and public policy in a wide range of areas, including civil rights and antidiscrimination law, employment discrimination, crime and criminal justice, and school funding
David Freeman Engstrom
Institutional design of litigation and regulatory regimes, including the roots of American employment discrimination law
Nora Freeman Engstrom
Tort law and professional ethics
Lawrence M. Friedman
Legal history as a branch of social history
Jacob Goldin
Taxation of low income households and the application of behavioral economics to the design of policy
Joseph A. Grundfest
Capital markets, corporate governance, and securities litigation
Deborah Hensler
Dispute resolution, complex litigation, class actions, and mass tort liability
Daniel E. Ho
Administrative law, antidiscrimination law, and courts
Mark G. Kelman
Social science approaches to diverse legal fields, including criminal law, taxation, administration regulation, and disability law
Daniel P. Kessler
Health policy and health care finance
Michael Klausner
Corporate law, corporate governance, business transactions, and financial regulation
Mark A. Lemley
Intellectual property, computer and Internet law, patent law, trademark law, antitrust, and remedies
Robert J. MacCoun
Law and psychology, including illicit drug use, drug policy, social influence processes, and bias in the use and interpretation of research evidence
Michelle M. Mello
Effects of law and regulation on health care delivery and population health outcomes
Alison D. Morantz
Law and economics of protective labor regulation, enforcement of workplace safety laws, and legal history
Julian Nyarko
Empirical realities of agreement design under U.S. and international law
Anne Joseph O’Connell
Administrative law and the federal bureaucracy
Lisa Larrimore Ouellette
Empirical and theoretical problems in intellectual property and innovation law
Joan Petersilia
Performance of U.S. criminal justice agencies, including sentencing and corrections reform
Jeff Strnad
Law & economics, public policy & empirical studies
David M. Studdert
How the legal system influences the health and well-being of populations