AALS Section Program Set

“Empirical Scholarship in Contract Law” will be the topic of the Section’s panel at the AALS Annual Meeting in January.  Section Chair David Snyder will lead the discussion, which will explore different approaches to empirical scholarship in contract law.  The panel is slated for Friday, January 6, 2006, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., at the Godawful Marriott Wardman Park.

Steven Choi (Cal-Berkeley) and Mitu Gulati (Georgetown) will present results from their studies on boilerplate terms, particularly geared to the factors leading to innovation and change.  George Geis (Alabama, left) will present an empirical study, based on marketing data, on the optimal precision of default rules.  Stewart Macaulay (Wisconsin) will address the empirical side of policy issues, especially contract interpretation, and will put empirical work in the context of a new legal realism related to the law in action movement.  Debora Threedy (Utah, right), one of the leading practitioners of qualitative empiricism in law — through deep historical studies of important cases such as Alaska Packers — will examine how the practice of legal archaeology illuminates contract law.  The published symposium, which will appear in the Tulane Law Review, will also include an empirical study from Kate Litvak (Texas), discussing recent trends in venture capital contracts.

The format will allow time for questions and answers, including questions about what constitutes “empirical” work in the law and what role empirical study can play in contract scholarship.  The annual Business Meeting will take place at the end of the panel.

[Frank Snyder]