2016 Conference: The Impact of Law on Behavior

Stanford Program in Law and Society

 Third Conference for Junior Researchers
Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA
May 13-14, 2016
The Impact of Law on Behavior

2016 Conference: The Impact of Law on Behavior 1

Introduction

The Stanford Program in Law and Society (SPLS) at Stanford Law School is pleased to announce its Third Conference for Junior Researchers. This two-day conference seeks to provide a stimulating platform where junior researchers from around the world can present their current research projects on law and society and receive input from faculty and other participants. It also seeks to build a community and network of young scholars in law and society. The conference will also feature a keynote address by an internationally renowned scholar, and an optional research methods workshop for conference participants.

Conference theme

The Third Conference for Junior Researchers invites the submission of papers that explore the impact of law on behavior. Numerous studies from different disciplines have shown the complexity of human behavior and the multifaceted ways in which behavior is influenced by external factors, including the legal system and its norms. We welcome submissions of research papers in all fields of law and from various disciplines that analyze, discuss, or reflect on the conference theme. The papers can make use of any relevant approach such as, but not limited to sociological, anthropological, psychological, historical, comparative, or economic. We encourage papers that involve one or more empirical methods of investigation (quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods).

We seek to investigate if, when, and how law affects people’s behavior. Assuming that traditionally law was created, and intended, to guide and shape behavior, we seek to understand to what extent it actually does so. What are the aspirational impacts of law on people’s behavior and what are the empirical facts of these impacts on the ground? How do people react or fail to react to law, the legal system, or legal actors? How are people’s behaviors transformed with the introduction of new laws? Are behaviors influenced by the enforcement or lack of enforcement of existing legal rules, or by the ways legal actors interpret and apply those rules? How do different social groups behave under similar legal rules?

Special Panel in Memory of Professor John Henry Merryman, Nelson Bowman Sweitzer and Marie B. Sweitzer Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

The conference committee would like to pay tribute to Professor John Henry Merryman who passed away in August 2015. Professor Merryman was an internationally renowned expert on art and cultural property law and a prolific scholar in the field of comparative law and society. Alongside the conference’s main theme, we also invite submissions in the field of art and cultural property law and in the field of comparative law to be presented in a special panel in honor of Professor Merryman at the conference.

The conference is free and open to the Stanford community and the general public. Please feel free to attend some or all panels.

2016 Conference: The Impact of Law on Behavior

Conference Schedule

The conference schedule is available here: SPLS Conference 2016 Schedule.pdf

Conference Materials

Panelists’ biographies are available here: SPLS Conference 2016 Panelists’ Biographies

Discussants’ biographies are available here: SPLS Conference 2016 Discussants’ Biographies

Empirical Research Methods Workshop – Thursday, May 12, 4:30-6:00pm, Room 95

An empirical research methods workshop will be held as part of the conference: “New Trends in Empirical Legal Studies: Closing the Gap Between Research Methods”

To RSVP for the workshop, visit: http://goo.gl/forms/8oQ6EA0HxF

Questions?

Please feel free to direct any question or comment to: stanfordlawandsociety@gmail.com