W. Laurens Walker

  • T. Munford Boyd Professor of Law Emeritus

Laurens Walker joined the Virginia faculty in 1978 and retired in 2011. He taught civil procedure, complex civil litigation and a seminar on using expert information within the legal system. Walker’s early empirical research on procedural justice (with John Thibaut) has been studied and replicated by scholars in law and psychology in the United States and abroad. Walker’s casebook (with John Monahan) “Social Science in Law,” now in its 10th edition, is used in this country and abroad both as a textbook and reference concerning judicial use of social research.

In 1984, Walker was appointed T. Munford Boyd Professor of Law. Walker also held the Class of 1963 Research Professorship from 1990-92. From 1995-98 Walker was Hunton & Williams Research Professor and from 2000-03 was John V. Ray Research Professor. His latest research (with John Monahan) has focused on the use of social research techniques, chiefly “sampling” to bring complex civil cases to trial and judgment, and he proposed a model plan for jury trial in federal class action cases. In 1988 he was given the Biennial Distinguished Contributions Award from the American Psychology-Law Society for his social scientific studies of the legal process.

Following law school, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, and service in the U.S. Army, Walker practiced with the Atlanta firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. Later he was counsel to the Atlanta firm of Long, Aldridge & Norman and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He came to Virginia from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he had been Paul B. Eaton Professor.

Scholarship Profile: Improving Legal Procedures Through Social Science (Virginia Journal 2004)

Walker Retires After Making Mark in Procedural Justice, Courtroom Use of Social Science

Education

  • S.J.D.
    Harvard Law School
    1970
  • J.D.
    Duke University School of Law
    1963
  • A.B.
    Davidson College
    1959

Books

An Introduction to Social Science in Law (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (2006).
Procedural Justice: A Psychological Analysis (with John Thibaut), L. Erlbaum Associates (1975).

Textbooks

Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (10 ed. 2021).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (9 ed. 2018).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (8 ed. 2014).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (7 ed. 2010).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (6 ed. 2006).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (5 ed. 2002).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (4 ed. 1998).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (3 ed. 1994).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (2 ed. 1990).
Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials (with John T. Monahan), Foundation Press (1 ed. 1985).

Book Chapters

Sampling Damages (with John T. Monahan), in Class Actions and Other Multi-Party Litigation: Cases and Materials , West Group, 822-826 (2000).
Language in the Judicial Process, in Language in the Judicial Process, Plenum Press, vii-xiv (1990).
Procedural Theory and Empirical Research (with E. Allan Lind), in Rechtssoziologie und Prozessrecht, Orac, 245-270 (1983).

Articles & Reviews

Beyond Context: Social Facts as Case Specific Evidence (with Gregory Mitchell & John T. Monahan), 60 Emory Law Journal 1109-1155 (2011).
Case Specific Sociological Inference: Metanorms for Expert Opinions (with Gregory Mitchell & John T. Monahan), 40 Social Methods & Research 668-680 (2011).
The ASA’s Missed Opportunity to Promote Sound Science in Court (with Gregory Mitchell & John T. Monahan), 40 Social Methods & Research 605-620 (2011).
Twenty-Five Years of Social Science in Law (with John T. Monahan), 35 Law & Human Behavior 72-82 (2011).
The Limits of Social Framework Evidence (with Gregory Mitchell & John T. Monahan), 8 Law, Probability, & Risk 307-321 (2009).
Contextual Evidence of Gender Discrimination: The Ascendance of “Social Frameworks” (with Gregory Mitchell & John T. Monahan), 94 Virginia Law Review 1715-1749 (2008).
A Judges’ Guide to Using Social Science (with John T. Monahan), 43 Court Review 156-163 (2007).
Sampling Evidence at the Crossroads (with John T. Monahan), 80 Southern California Law Review 969-995 (2007).
The Consumer Class Action Bill of Rights: A Policy and Political Mistake, 58 Hastings Law Journal 849-868 (2007).
The Other Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 25 Review of Litigation 79-114 (2006).
A Model Plan to Resolve Federal Class Action Cases by Jury Trial, 88 Virginia Law Review 405-445 (2002).
The Stay Seen Around the World: The Order That Stopped the Vote Recounting in Bush v. Gore, 18 Journal of Law & Politics 823-849 (2002).
Environmental Citizen Suits: Standing and Mootness after Laidlaw, 19 Virginia Environmental Law Journal 393-405 (2000).
Scientific Authority: The Breast Implant Litigation and Beyond (with John T. Monahan), 86 Virginia Law Review 801-833 (2000).
Sampling Liability (with John T. Monahan), 85 Virginia Law Review 329-351 (1999).
Sampling Damages (with John T. Monahan), 83 Iowa Law Review 545-568 (1998).
The End of the New Deal and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 82 Iowa Law Review 1269-1291 (1997).
Daubert and the Reference Manual: An Essay on the Future of Science in Law (with John T. Monahan), 82 Virginia Law Review 837-857 (1996).
Writings on the Margin of American Law: Committee Notes, Comments, and Commentary, 82 Virginia Law Review 837-857 (1996).
Avoiding Surprise from Federal Civil Rule Making: The Role of Economic Analysis, 23 Journal of Legal Studies 569-593 (1994).
Judicial Use of Social Science Research after Daubert (with John T. Monahan), 2 Shepard’s Expert & Scientific Evidence Quarterly 327-342 (1994).
Comprehensive Reform for Federal Civil Rulemaking, 61 George Washington Law Review 455-489 (1993).
Empirical Questions without Empirical Answers (with John T. Monahan), 1991 Wisconsin Law Review 569-594 (1991).
Judicial Use of Social Science Research (with John T. Monahan), 15 Law & Human Behavior 571-584 (1991).
Perfecting Federal Civil Rules: A Proposal for Restricted Field Experiments, 51 Law & Contemporary Problems 67-85 (1988).
Social Facts: Scientific Methodology as Legal Precedent (with John T. Monahan), 76 California Law Review 877-896 (1988).
Social Science Research in Law: A New Paradigm (with John T. Monahan), 43 American Psychology 465-472 (1988).
Social Frameworks: A New Use of Social Science in Law (with John T. Monahan), 73 Virginia Law Review 559-598 (1987).
Social Authority: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Establishing Social Science in Law (with John T. Monahan), 134 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 477-517 (1986).
A Useful Assessment (reviewing Jethro Koller Lieberman, The Role of Courts in American Society: The Final Report of the Council on the Report of Courts) 69 Judicature 55 (1985).
Teaching Social Science in Law: An Alternative to “Law and Society” (with John T. Monahan), 35 Journal of Legal Education 478-482 (1985).
Psychological Studies of Procedural Models (with E. Allan Lind), 2 Progress Applied Social Psychology 293-313 (1984).
Procedure and Outcome Effects on Reactions to Adjudicated Resolution of Conflicts of Interest (with Susan Kurtz et al.), 39 Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 643-653 (1980).
Efficient Procedure (with Michael Lea), 57 North Carolina Law Review 361-378 (1979).
The Relation between Procedural and Distributive Justice (with E. Allan Lind & John Thibaut), 65 Virginia Law Review 1401-1420 (1979).
Theory Testing, Theory Development, and Laboratory Research on Legal Issues (with E. Allan Lind & John Thibaut), 3 Law & Human Behavior 5-19 (1979).
A Theory of Procedure (with John Thibaut), 66 California Law Review 541-566 (1978).
Preference for Modes of Dispute Resolution as a Function of Process and Decision Control (with Paulina Houlden, Stephen LaTour & John Thibaut), 14 Experimental Social Psychology 13-30 (1978).
Contemporary Civil Procedure (reviewing Paul D. Carrington & Barbara Allen Babcock, Civil Procedure: Cases and Comments on the Process of Adjudication) 30 Stanford Law Review 271-279 (1977).
A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Effect of Adversary and Inquisitorial Processes on Bias in Legal Decisionmaking, 62 Virginia Law Review 271-284 (1976).
After the Clinic What? (with Burton Goldstein), 27 Journal of Legal Education 614-616 (1976).
Procedure: Transnational Perspectives and Preferences (with Pauline Houlden, Stephen LaTour & John Thibaut), 86 Yale Law Journal 258-291 (1976).
Foreword to Developments in Law and Social Sciences Research, 52 North Carolina Law Review 969-972 (1974).
Procedural Justice as Fairness (with Pauline Houlden, Stephen LaTour & John Thibaut), 26 Stanford Law Review 1271-1290 (1974).
Discovery and Presentation of Evidence in Adversary and Nonadversary Proceedings (with E. Allan Lind & John Thibaut), 71 Michigan Law Review 1129-1144 (1973).
In Response to Professor Brett (with E. Allan Lind & John Thibaut), 45 University of Colorado Law Review 23-24 (1973).
Adversary Presentation and Bias in Legal Decisionmaking (with E. Allan Lind & John Thibaut), 86 Harvard Law Review 386-401 (1972).
Order of Presentation at Trial, 82 Yale Law Journal 216-226 (1972).

Reports & Datasets

Statement, Court-Ordered School Busing US Government Print Office 357-360, 397 (1982).

Current Courses

No courses were found for this instructor.

All Courses

Civil Procedure
Complex Civil Litigation
Environmental Liability Litigation (seminar)
Federal Courts
Seminars in Ethical Values

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