Empirical assumptions are central to many legal debates and real-world issues brought before courts each year. The Center for Empirical Studies in Law fosters data-driven research that tests such assumptions and works to train the next generation of lawyers in empirical techniques that play an increasingly prominent role in litigation.
The center’s affiliated faculty — with doctorates in economics, finance, political science and psychology — demonstrate a broad array of expertise with empirical work in a variety of fields. Their research has made an impact on areas ranging from international comparative law to the use of social science in courts. The faculty also harnesses that research in their teaching, allowing students to understand the importance of data-driven analysis in their careers as lawyers, in policy, and in business and beyond.
Lenders are perfectly free to decide for themselves whether, when, how, to whom and on what terms they will extend credit to a sovereign borrower. But...
False information causes harm, threatening individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them...
Many analyses of law take an unsentimental, perhaps even cynical view of regulated actors. On this view, law is a necessity borne of people’s selfish...
Lenders are perfectly free to decide for themselves whether, when, how, to whom and on what terms they will extend credit to a sovereign borrower. But...
False information causes harm, threatening individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them...
Many analyses of law take an unsentimental, perhaps even cynical view of regulated actors. On this view, law is a necessity borne of people’s selfish...
This chapter studies political corruption and its many relationships to the law of democracy. It begins with bribery laws, which forbid officials from...
There is a live debate going on over whether antitrust should take a broader view of the economics of market concentration. When antitrust reformers...
The SEC mandates that public companies assess new information that changes the risks that they face and disclose these if there has been a “material”...
This paper describes the response of George Washington's administration to a plea for emergency war financing from French colonists who were trying to...
The conventional view is that standardized boilerplate terms represent an optimal contractual solution to the contracting problems facing parties in...
Consequential damages have been a cornerstone of contract doctrine since the broken crankshaft in Hadley v. Baxendale. And the Hadley rule is one of...
In this article, we examine the relations between risk, the choice of foreign or local contract terms (parameters), and maturity in the sovereign debt...
This chapter examines several ways that the United States takes advantage of international law’s permissiveness and ambiguity to extend its criminal...
Courts routinely use low cash bail as a financial incentive to ensure that released defendants appear in court and abstain from crime. This can create...
We examine the legal terms in the market for green bonds, debt instruments in which proceeds are earmarked, directly or indirectly, for projects with...
The past few years have witnessed a particular accusation leveled repeatedly and loudly at the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority: that...
We examine the legal terms in the market for green bonds, debt instruments in which proceeds are earmarked, directly or indirectly, for projects with...
All sovereign debt restructurings are inherently messy, expensive, exasperating, time-consuming and contentious. These are the familiar pathologies in...
We review the state of the sovereign debt literature and point out that the canonical model of sovereign debt cannot be easily reconciled with several...
Two market-makers internally executed 70% of retail orders between 2017-2021 ($70 trillion; 19% of total volume). The concentration of retail trading...
Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Darden School of Business
Curriculum
The following is a list of courses offered during 2022-25. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2022-23 is coded (23), 2023-24 is coded (24) and 2024-25 is coded (25). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (25) Behavioral Law and Economics (SC) (23) Comparative Constitutional Law (23) Computational Text Analysis for Legal Practice (SC) (22) Constitutional Law and Economics (23) Contemporary Housing Policy Debates (25) Courts (23) Criminology (23) Critical Race Theory and Criminal Justice (25) Empirical Legal Studies (24,25) Empirical Legal Studies I (24) Empirical Legal Studies II (24) Datafication, Automation and Inequality (SC) (23) Law and Economics (23) Law and Economics Colloquium (,23) Law and Social Science Colloquium (23) New Research in Criminal Justice (25) Rise of ESG in Corporate Law and Governance (23) Second Amendment and Gun Violence Colloquium (25) Social Science in Law (23) Truth, Lies and Statistics for Lawyers (SC) (23,25)
A new study by University of Virginia School of Law professor Richard Schragger and librarian Sarah New found underdevelopment in Charlottesville, even before recent zoning regulations loosened homebuilding restrictions.
The rules on character evidence are difficult to apply and riddled with exceptions and problems, according to Teneille Brown, a University of Utah law professor who argues they need to be updated.
The Law School offers an intellectual environment that often spotlights empirical studies. The Law & Economics Workshop and the Law & Social Science Workshop host researchers from around the world, many of whom employ empirical methods in their work. Faculty affiliated with the center regularly supervise independent studies that result in published student notes.
From the Virginia Tax Review to the Virginia Law & Business Review, student journals regularly publish work using empirical methods, giving journal members a chance to gain experience in analyzing articles in the field.
UVA Law professor John Monahan discusses how predicting violence became a concern for courtrooms and mental health practices nationwide, and developed alongside his own career.
A new study by University of Virginia School of Law professor Richard Schragger and librarian Sarah New found underdevelopment in Charlottesville, even before recent zoning regulations loosened homebuilding restrictions.
Most interventions and reforms in criminal justice have little enduring impact, argues University of Virginia School of Law professor Megan T. Stevenson in a new article that reviews 50 years of data.
A breakthrough new empirical initiative led by University of Virginia School of Law professor Kevin Cope could provide the most accurate estimate to date of federal judges’ ideologies, using computers to analyze lawyers’ written observations.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Moira O’Neill led a yearlong California-funded investigation that culminated last week in the release of a report that requires the city to improve a zoning and permitting process that has stymied construction.
Employees need more guardrails to help them avoid making poor choices on their retirement accounts, argues University of Virginia law professor Quinn Curtis in a new book with Yale law professor Ian Ayres.
New courses offered this fall at the University of Virginia School of Law include Climate and Debt, Contemporary Challenges in Military Justice and Empirical Legal Studies.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Megan Stevenson, an economist and criminal justice scholar, has won the inaugural Donald M. Ephraim Prize in Law and Economics.
Professor Michael Livermore, an expert in computational legal analysis at the University of Virginia School of Law, discusses the future of artificial intelligence in the legal industry.
Members of the University of Virginia School of Law community have recently been singled out for excellence. Among the accolades, Spencer Haydary ’23 was named a 2022 John A. Herring Scholar by the Serpentine Society and seven faculty members cracked the top 75 among the most-cited law professors in the U.S.
The 16th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies will be held at the University of Virginia School of Law from Nov. 3-5. Anne-Marie Slaughter, the CEO of New America and a former dean at Princeton, will deliver the keynote address.
The new Center for Empirical Studies in Law at the University of Virginia School of Law will support and showcase the work of faculty who use data to better understand the law, and also help train the next generation of lawyers in empirical techniques.
“The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity and Love in the Digital Age,” by University of Virginia law professor Danielle K. Citron, argues for online privacy as a human right. The book will be released by W.W. Norton and Penguin UK on Oct. 4.
University of Virginia School of Law Vice Dean Michael D. Gilbert’s new co-authored textbook applies economic analysis to the field of public law. The publisher, Oxford University Press, has made the book available for free online.
New faculty are joining and visiting the University of Virginia School of Law this school year, strengthening the depth and breadth of the school’s curricular offerings and scholarly expertise.
Members of the University of Virginia School of Law community have recently been singled out for excellence. Among the accolades, UVA was ranked No. 2 in Above the Law’s annual law school rankings and Professor Cynthia Nicoletti won an award for her scholarship.
Professor John Monahan of the University of Virginia School of Law discusses how the science of predicting violence developed and how it shaped his own career on the “Common Law” podcast.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Quinn Curtis’ paper on environmental, social and corporate governance mutual funds has been named one of the top 10 corporate and securities articles of 2021 in an annual poll.
Professor Megan Stevenson discusses her research revealing the true costs of pretrial detention on the latest “Common Law,” a podcast of the University of Virginia School of Law.
New courses offered this fall at the University of Virginia School of Law include Climate and Debt, Contemporary Challenges in Military Justice and Empirical Legal Studies.
Professor Quinn Curtis discusses themes from his co-authored book “Retirement Guardrails: How Proactive Fiduciaries Can Improve Plan Outcomes” during a luncheon for the Law School Foundation Board of Trustees and Alumni Council.
