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

Q&A: Willow oil project and Arctic drilling limits
(Originally published by Stanford Earth Matters magazine on March 16, 2023) Stanford experts explain why the recently approved Willow oil drilling project in Alaska has sparked controversy, discuss the significance of new limits on oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, and describe the complicated nature of energy transformation in the…
Read MoreStanford’s David Engstrom Explores the Impact of Legal Technology on Civil Justice
SLS’s Hank Greely Discusses In Vitro Fertilization post-Dobbs
A Netflix Drama Shines a Light on the Contradictions of ‘Juvenile Justice’
Q&A: Senior Fellows John F. Cogan And Michael McConnell On Their New Amicus Brief Opposing The Student Loan Forgiveness Program
Four questions: Evelyn Douek on what Section 230 is and why it is misunderstood
Stanford’s Allen Weiner on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and the Laws of War
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
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