Institute Overview
The Institute for Legal Studies acts as a catalyst and facilitator for scholarly work on sociolegal topics carried out by law faculty and their collaborators and provides technical assistance for their external funding proposals. It provides support for the Legal History Program, the Wisconsin Contracts Project, and programs involving New Legal Realism and Real Estate, Land Use and Community Development. The Institute has collaborated with the ABF and the ASLH on joint projects, and it houses the Review Section of Law & Social Inquiry. The Institute sponsors faculty workshops on works-in-progress, professional development, and research methods, a legal studies series for graduate students, as well as guest lectures, symposia and conferences. The Institute hosts two biennial signature events: the Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History and the Midwest Law and Society Retreat. For additional details, please see ILS History
People: Administration, Fellows & Visiting Scholars
Events: Lectures, Workshops & Conferences
Fellowships:
- Law and Society Graduate Fellows Program A program for graduate students at UW-Madison. ILS Law and Society Graduate Fellows are JD and doctoral students drawn from a range of disciplines across the UW-Madison campus. The program aims to expand students' research skill set and assist in preparing for the dissemination of their research.
- Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History Biennial two-week summer session for early-career legal historians. The next Hurst Institute will take place June 4-17, 2017.
Programs and Activities:
- Midwest Law and Society Retreat Biennial event bringing together faculty and graduate students from the Midwest's diverse law and society programs for a weekend of intellectual exchange and community building. The next retreat will take place November 18-19, 2016. See: Midwest Retreat 2016.
- Wisconsin Discussion Group on Constitutionalism Annual invitation-only faculty workshop hosted by Professor Heinz Klug and other constitutional law professors, held during the fall semester. See Events at the Institute.
- The New Legal Realism Project Jointly sponsored by
the Institute for Legal Studies and the American Bar Foundation, the
New Legal Realism Project is a network of scholars who seek to develop
an interdisciplinary paradigm for empirical research on law.
- External Funding Proposal Support Budget development and technical support is available for UW law faculty and academic staff in collaboration with the Law School Dean's office. More information for law faculty and staff can be found here. (net ID required).
- Legal Studies Workshop Series Hosted by the Law and Society Postdoctoral Fellow or a graduate student, students and faculty share
papers at presentations every other Tuesday during the academic year. Information about the workshop schedule is included on the ILS events page.
- Faculty Workshop Series A small group of faculty commit to reading and commenting on a works in progress. Sessions take place on Wednesdays. Each presenter serves at the moderator for the next session. See the ILS events page for schedule details.
- Ideas and Innovations Series and Law and Society Speaker Series Distinguished scholars are invited to present works in progress and receive feedback at a workshop for faculty, graduate students, academic staff, and visiting scholars. See the ILS events page for schedule details.
Legal History at Wisconsin:
- The Wisconsin Tradition in Legal History The history of legal history. The "Wisconsin tradition" in legal history consists of both a long-standing university commitment to the teaching and study of legal history and an approach to historical studies that examines the interaction between law and social forces: "law in context," rather than law as a system unto itself.
- The Legal History Working Group, Affiliated Faculty, Courses, Resources, and more Links to current activities, faculty webpages, course listings, campus resources, and related information.
Past Programs:
- The Wisconsin Contracts Project Please
click on the link to see a list of events sponsored by the Contracts
Project, including a workshop in 2014 named in honor of John Kidwell:
"What
Lawyers Say Determines Choice of Law in Merger Agreements" by Juliet
Kostritsky and a conference in 2011: "Empirical and Lyrical: Revisiting the Contracts Scholarship of Stewart Macaulay".
- The "Law & ..." Workshop
This interdisciplinary and international workshop promoted scholarship
in law and the social sciences. UW/visiting students and faculty share
papers and presentations on past and present topics on a monthly basis
during the academic year.
- Program in Real Estate, Land Use,
and Community Development This multidisciplinary program designed with curricular,
scholarly, and policy components to expand opportunities for students
and faculty ended in 2012.
- Project on Law & the Humanities
- Interdisciplinary Feminism Project
- Family Policy and Law Colloquium Series
- Wisconsin Project on Governance & Regulation (WISGAR)
Affiliated Centers:
ILS collaborates on interdisciplinary projects with various campus departments and with two Centers at the Law School:
Related Publication Links:
Abstracts on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) List of works posted by University of Wisconsin faculty or Wisconsin Law Journals.
Law and Social Inquiry Multidisciplinary peer-reviewed quarterly features both empirical and theoretical studies contributing to the understanding of sociolegal processes.
- Law and Society Review Quarterly peer-reviewed publication of work bearing on the relationship between society and the legal process.
- PoLAR: The Political and Legal Anthropology Review Journal devoted to the anthropology of law and politics, broadly construed, publishing work that is distinguished by its innovative definition of problems, ethnographic orientation, or theoretical outlook.
