Empirical Legal Scholarship: Reestablishing a Dialogue Between the Academy and Profession

Abstract

Should legal academics begin to engage in a greater degree of empirical scholarship, I believe that the gap between law schools and the profession will not only cease to distend, but actually will begin to contract. If what I assert is true, or even partially true, the question remains: Why is there such a paucity of empirical legal scholarship?

Part I of this article discusses the importance and value of the empirical method and empirical scholarship by briefly exploring the philosophy of Pragmatism and its influence on the law. Thereafter, part II explores why legal academics do not engage in empirical scholarship on a more frequent basis. Last, this article proposes a potential remedy with the hope of encouraging the production of more empirical scholarship.

Keywords: Empirical Scholarship