Randomized Control Trials in the United States Legal Profession

We assemble studies within a set that we label "randomized control trials ('RCTs') in the United States legal profession," projects that essentially consist of field experiments conducted for the purpose of obtaining knowledge in which randomization replaces a decision that would otherwise have been made by a member of the United States legal profession. We use our assembly of approximately fifty studies to begin addressing the question of why the United States legal profession, in contrast to the United States medical profession, has resisted the use of the RCT as a knowledge-generating device.

Keywords: empirical legal studies, randomized control trials, law

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Greiner, Daniel James and Matthews, Andrea, Randomized Control Trials in the United States Legal Profession (February 2, 2016). Harvard Public Law Working Paper No. 16-06, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2726614 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2726614