More than 250 scholars from five different continents gathered at Emory University School of Law in November 2024 for the 18th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS). The conference is an interdisciplinary program that brings together researchers in law, political science, economics, psychology, and other fields interested in the analysis of law and legal institutions.

On November 8 and 9, participants presented their papers, led discussions, and addressed questions from other attending scholars. Presentation topics included: antitrust, artificial intelligence, bankruptcy, constitutional law, corporate law, environmental law, intellectual property, international law and development, judicial decision-making, labor law and markets, law and social norms, law and politics, tax law, as well as torts and health law.

The Conference on Empirical Legal Studies was launched in 2006 to reflect the increasing amount of empirical scholarship within law schools and other institutions. Previous CELS have been held on esteemed campuses such as Cornell Law School, Duke University Law School, Northwestern, NYU, Penn, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Yale.

Emory Law professors and Society for Empirical Legal Studies co-presidents Tonja Jacobi, Jonathan Nash, and Joanna Shepherd were instrumental in bringing the conference to Emory. Jacobi is a professor of law and Sam Nunn Chair in Ethics and Professionalism; her work focuses on Supreme Court judicial behavior and public law. Nash is a Robert Howell Hall Professor of Law, director of Emory Law’s Center on Federalism and Intersystemic Governance, and director of the Emory Center for Law and Social Science. His research specialties include federal courts, jurisdiction, the study of courts, and environmental law. Shepherd is a Thomas Simmons Professor of Law and a vice dean; her areas of academic expertise are judicial behavior, law and economics, torts, and health policy.

Emory Law sponsored the 2024 CELS conference. Co-sponsors included the Emory Center for Law and Social Science, the Emory Department of Political Science, and the Emory Department of Quantitative Theory and Methods.

This year’s Conference on Empirical Legal Studies will take place in October 2025 at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.