Showing papers in "Annual Review of Law and Social Science in 2015"
TL;DR: The authors surveys social-scientific research, legal analysis, and case history on affordability, access, housing conditions, forced displacement, and homelessness, showing how housing plays a central, crucial role in the lives of poor Americans.
Abstract: Throughout much of the late twentieth century, social scientists and legal scholars focused considerable attention on low-income housing and landlord-tenant law. In recent years, however, interest in housing has waned, leaving many questions fundamental to the poverty debate unanswered. This article calls for a renewed focus on housing, law, and poverty, with particular attention to the housing sector where most low-income families live, unassisted: the private rental market. Surveying social-scientific research, legal analysis, and case history on affordability, access, housing conditions, forced displacement, and homelessness, this article shows how housing plays a central, crucial role in the lives of poor Americans. The poor have been central to the development of housing law, and the law itself has done much to mitigate and aggravate their poverty.
62 citations
TL;DR: A review of the literature on false confessions can be found in this paper, where the authors present a review of recent assessments of scientifically validated approaches for obtaining cooperation, eliciting confessions, and detecting deceit.
Abstract: The past two decades of research on interrogation were spurred, in large part, by the specter of false confessions and the resulting miscarriages of justice. More recently, interest in the topic has been fueled by the need to develop evidence-based methods that improve the collection of diagnostic confession evidence and accurate intelligence from human sources. In this review, we update the research on false confessions and describe recent assessments of scientifically validated approaches for obtaining cooperation, eliciting confessions, and detecting deceit. Studies are summarized through the prism of accusatorial versus information-gathering approaches to interrogation: The former rely on psychological manipulation and control-based methods, whereas the latter focus on developing rapport and cooperation to elicit an account that can be strategically addressed via evidence presentation. The review concludes with recommendations for additional research to further improve the effectiveness of interrogati...
62 citations
TL;DR: The legal control of marginal groups is a central topic in social scientific and legal research as discussed by the authors, and the most influential research produced over the past two decades, as well as a broad collection of foundational and exemplary texts, have been examined.
Abstract: The legal control of marginal groups is a central topic in social scientific and legal scholarship. Examining the most influential research produced over the past two decades, as well as a broad collection of foundational and exemplary texts, this review addresses two overarching questions: First, what does it mean to study the legal control of marginal groups in the twenty-first century? Second, what are the recent developments, lingering concerns, and future directions of this work? We identify and examine the two most prevalent discussions found in contemporary research. The first centers on the practices of legal control, and the second focuses attention on the effects of these practices on their potential targets. Throughout the article, we draw specific attention to the need for future studies to more systematically account for the agency of, and ground-level dynamics impacting, both the controllers and the controlled.
56 citations
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the empirical comparative law literature with an emphasis on quantitative work and reported progress in measurement design and suggest improvements in data analysis and interpretation using techniques from other fields, particularly growth econometrics.
Abstract: I review the empirical comparative law literature with an emphasis on quantitative work. After situating the field and surveying its main applications to date, I turn to methodological issues. I discuss at length the obstacles to causal inference from comparative data, and caution against inappropriate use of instrumental variables and other techniques. Even if comparative data cannot identify any single causal theory, however, they are extremely important in narrowing down the set of plausible theories. I report progress in measurement design and suggest improvements in data analysis and interpretation using techniques from other fields, particularly growth econometrics.
43 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that working for one side in an adversarial case causes some experts' opinions to drift toward the party retaining their services, even on ostensibly objective instruments and procedures.
Abstract: Can experts remain objective and accurate when one particular side in adversarial legal proceedings retains them? Despite long-standing concerns from the legal system and the general public, research has only recently explored whether experts can provide opinions unbiased by the side that retained them. This review addresses some of the factors that may cause disagreements between opposing experts. After summarizing recent field and experimental studies on mental health evaluations by forensic experts, we conclude that working for one side in an adversarial case causes some experts' opinions to drift toward the party retaining their services, even on ostensibly objective instruments and procedures. We call this process adversarial allegiance. The mechanisms that underlie adversarial allegiance among forensic experts are likely similar to the unconscious heuristics and cognitive biases that compromise judgment in a variety of other settings, but these will require further study to understand, and ultimatel...
43 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight a failure to adequately integrate the findings of research in two different subliteratures, one focusing on the incentives of states and firms to adopt reforms, and a second focusing on implementation of those reforms with monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.
Abstract: Research over the past decade has made considerable progress toward achieving a holistic understanding of the myriad actors, interests, and relationships shaping labor rights in global supply chains, but numerous obstacles remain to building a more cumulative research program. In this essay we outline two major challenges and several fruitful directions forward. First, we review the different outcomes of interest in research on labor rights and highlight several tensions that lead to difficulty comparing findings across studies, inappropriate data choices, and unexamined causal assumptions. Second, we highlight a failure to adequately integrate the findings of research in two different subliteratures, one focusing on the incentives of states and firms to adopt reforms, and a second focusing on the implementation of those reforms with monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. We conclude by highlighting the important questions raised by a clearer integration of these two literatures and identifying several re...
36 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a review of the effectiveness of public area surveillance measures and examine related social costs, focusing on the benefits of these measures beyond the traditional closed-circuit television (CCTV).
Abstract: Video surveillance, or closed-circuit television (CCTV), has become a highly popular and prevalent method of preventing crime in public space in many countries across the world. Although it often dominates the policy focus, questions have been raised about its effectiveness and social costs, as well as how it compares to alternative surveillance measures. A theoretical and programmatic understanding of surveillance draws attention to other widely used surveillance measures that perform a crime prevention function in public places. These include improved street lighting, security guards, place managers (e.g., bus drivers and parking lot attendants), and defensible space (i.e., changes to the built environment). This article reviews the research evidence on the effectiveness of the full range of public area surveillance measures and examines related social costs. It also serves to broaden the view of public area surveillance beyond the current narrow focus on CCTV.
32 citations
TL;DR: A growing body of social science research indicates that race, ethnicity, and culture can influence the judgments and behaviors of juries as discussed by the authors, and that juror bias often involves subtle or implicit psychological processes that can be difficult to recognize and correct.
Abstract: This article reviews a growing body of social science research indicating that race, ethnicity, and culture can influence the judgments and behaviors of juries. The first section addresses research on jury bias, which shows that jurors often make harsher judgments of defendants from other racial and ethnic groups and are more likely to give death sentences in cases involving Black or Latino defendants and White victims. However, these effects are moderated by several factors related to the trial parties, context, and crime. Further, juror bias often involves subtle or implicit psychological processes that can be difficult to recognize and correct. The second section discusses research conceptualizing jurors as agentic forces whose judgments and behaviors may reflect their racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. This work shows that jurors' backgrounds may influence their reactions to defendants, trial judgments, and deliberation behaviors. The final section offers recommendations for future research in ...
23 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors demonstrate that law plays a central role in structuring sovereign debt markets, and that these legal rules and institutions are not set in stone; they evolve in response to the political, economic, and social forces that shape the market for sovereign debt.
Abstract: The literature on sovereign debt treats law as of marginal significance, largely because the doctrine of sovereign immunity leaves creditors few potent legal remedies against sovereign borrowers. Although sovereign debts can indeed be hard to enforce, the goal of this article is to demonstrate that law plays a central, and constantly evolving, role in structuring sovereign debt markets. To list just a few examples, legal rules and institutions (a) decide when a borrower is sovereign, (b) define the consequences of sovereignty by drawing (or refusing to draw) artificial boundaries between the sovereign and other legal entities, (c) play some role in cases of state and government succession, and (d) determine the extent to which the rules of sovereign immunity can be changed by contract. These legal rules and institutions are not set in stone; they evolve in response to the political, economic, and social forces that shape the market for sovereign debt.
20 citations
TL;DR: The increasing importance of social rights language in constitutional texts and in the politics of social provision and human security has triggered a voluminous academic literature as mentioned in this paper, arguing that the struggle to realize social rights is a political one, grounded in and pursued through local structures of demand.
Abstract: The increasing importance of social rights language in constitutional texts and in the politics of social provision and human security has triggered a voluminous academic literature. Despite its global origins, we argue, social rights language goes through a process of vernacularization, through which it transforms and is transformed by local politics. The process begins when particular rights are included in constitutional texts and continues when local groups take hold of that language to express their particular aspirations. The struggle to realize social rights is a political one, grounded in and pursued through local structures of demand. In the course of that struggle, rights acquire local particularities. At the same time, the global origins and universal language of rights can open possibilities for subordinate groups to challenge the status quo. Whether or not social rights constitutionalism in the end improves the situation for these groups or simply reinforces the status quo depends on the outc...
18 citations
TL;DR: There has been an explosion of research on South Asian legal history as discussed by the authors, focusing on the legal profession and the experience of dispute resolution in India, and the second wave has concentrated on the themes of gender and religion in British India.
Abstract: Since the late 1990s, there has been an explosion of scholarship on South Asian legal history. This article situates the new literature within the longer tradition of postcolonial South Asian legal studies, focusing on work written by lawyers and historians. The first wave of South Asian legal studies emerged in what historians would call the long 1960s from a group of American lawyers and social scientists working on the legal profession and the experience of dispute resolution in India. The second wave, which has concentrated on the themes of gender and religion in British India, has been shaped by different influences, namely developments in the Indian women's movement and in Indian legal education during the 1980s and 1990s. The survey considers whether the new scholarship is overly focused on elites, the state, the colonial period, and English-language sources. It also identifies regional crosscutting themes that have generated research on South Asia beyond India, particularly constitutionalism, stat...
TL;DR: In this paper, the World Bank's Justice for the Poor (JFDP) program is discussed, and the authors argue that rule of law reform must be understood in the context of the politics of the relationship between development experts and the domestic political forums in and through which rules systems emerge.
Abstract: Rule of law orthodoxy—legal transplants from high- to low-income countries—has endured despite persistent critiques. A key reason for this, we argue, is the absence of positive theories of praxis that can instantiate essentially contested concepts such as rule of law. We discuss the emergence of one nascent alternative, the World Bank's Justice for the Poor program, locating it within broader turns to experimental approaches to development. In doing so, we argue that rule of law reform must be understood in the context of the politics of the relationship between development experts and the domestic political forums in and through which rules systems emerge. As such, a primary task of external agencies is to help forge and sustain such forums, to recognize the deep imbrication between the process norms of these forums and the nature of the rule of law being produced, and to ensure that the empirical foundations on which ensuing deliberations rest are both sound and accessible. We conclude with an explorati...
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of the use of technology in law enforcement contexts, focusing on evidence of resistance to particular forms of intervention is presented, which can be understood as rational and predominantly self-interested responses to new conditions.
Abstract: This review considers the use of technology in law enforcement contexts, focusing on evidence of resistance to particular forms of intervention. Whereas Big Brother and civil liberties narratives dominate the academic discussion of opposition in this area, we focus on reviewing evidence of the more routine adaptations that characterize many people's response to attempts to change their behavior. Discussion of some frequently encountered technologies (including closed-circuit television and speed cameras) is situated within a reflection on the changes in conceptualizations of both crime and the criminal observable over recent decades. Many acts of resistance within this context can, it is proposed, be understood not as examples of ideological opposition but as rational and predominantly self-interested responses to these new conditions.
TL;DR: This article reviewed recent work on behavioral ethics, bringing together research findings about cognitive and social factors that influence ethical decision making and focusing on those with particular application to the legal context, and explored both the unexceptional and unique structures and pressures on ethical decision-making in legal practice.
Abstract: Research on behavioral ethics is flourishing, providing new insight into the cognitive, situational, and social factors that influence ethical decisions. Although many common approaches to dealing with legal ethics assume that unethical behavior is a result of conscious decision making driven by economic self-interest, the psychology of behavioral ethics makes clear that ethical decision making is far more complex than bad actors making conscious decisions to act unethically for their own economic advancement. This article reviews recent work on behavioral ethics, bringing together research findings about cognitive and social factors that influence ethical decision making and focusing on those with particular application to the legal context. The ethical issues faced by lawyers provide a rich context within which to apply the findings of existing research and to conduct new research that explores both the unexceptional and unique structures and pressures on ethical decision making in legal practice.
TL;DR: A systematic introduction to a body of historical and contemporary research that is distinctive in its commitment to the observations that the economy and the law are mutually constitutive of wider social life, including that part of social life relating to how we think and communicate about the econo-socio-legal is given in this paper.
Abstract: This article offers a systematic introduction to a body of historical and contemporary research that is distinctive in its commitment to the observations that the economy and the law are mutually constitutive, and that both are in turn mutually constitutive of wider social life, including that part of social life relating to how we think and communicate about the econo-socio-legal. The aim is to offer a framework for approaching econo-socio-legal thinking and practice from the past, present, and future.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper traced the three waves of law and social science studies in contemporary China and examined the current status of this rapidly differentiating interdisciplinary field, and reviewed four emerging subareas of Chinese sociolegal studies in detail: law in rural society, the legal profession, courts and dispute resolution, and criminal justice.
Abstract: This article traces the three waves of law and social science studies in contemporary China and examines the current status of this rapidly differentiating interdisciplinary field. Whereas the first two waves of studies subsided without generating a nationwide law and society movement, the most recent wave is rapidly changing the landscape of Chinese legal scholarship through empirical research. Four emerging subareas of Chinese sociolegal studies are reviewed in detail: (a) law in rural society, (b) the legal profession, (c) courts and dispute resolution, and (d) criminal justice.
TL;DR: The authors surveys key aspects of socio-legal scholarship on India and highlights a few areas upon which scholars may wish to build in the future, concluding that much of this literature has served as a vehicle to champion the rights of the needy.
Abstract: This article surveys key aspects of sociolegal scholarship on India. The literature has tended to emphasize certain areas, such as rights-based social movements, courts (both formal and informal), and the legal profession. Additionally, various authors over the years have examined gender, religion, and caste—each on its own, but also how each can intersect with one another and with the other above-mentioned topics. And more recently, there has been a burgeoning sociolegal literature on the role globalization plays in India. Scholars who have written on these issues approach their work from a range of methodological perspectives, but regardless, as we argue here, much of this literature has served as a vehicle to champion the rights of the needy. Gaps, of course, still are present, which we discuss. We conclude by highlighting a few areas upon which scholars may wish to build in the future.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on three types of procedural issues: dispositive motions (motions to dismiss and summary judgment), discovery, and jurisdiction, and discuss empirical as well as theoretical work.
Abstract: The economic analysis of procedure reduces most issues to direct costs and error costs. Direct costs are ordinary litigation costs. Error costs are the reduction in deterrence and the increase in chilling that result from inaccurate adjudication. The goal of procedure is the minimization of the sum of direct and error costs. This framework has been applied to many procedural issues, and this survey focuses on three: dispositive motions (motions to dismiss and summary judgment), discovery, and jurisdiction. Economic analysis has yielded significant insights in these areas, but important questions remain for future researchers. Because theory is often indeterminate, this survey discusses empirical as well as theoretical work, although, unfortunately, empirical work has focused on direct costs and has largely neglected error costs.
TL;DR: Moore as discussed by the authors reflected on three major projects in her professional history: preparations for the second set of Nuremberg Trials, a dissertation on law in Inca Peru, and fieldwork in a time of postcolonial socialism on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Abstract: Sally Moore was initially a lawyer and later became an anthropologist. In this article she reflects on three major projects in her professional history: preparations for the second set of Nuremberg Trials, a dissertation on law in Inca Peru, and fieldwork in a time of postcolonial socialism on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. All three situations presented strong official versions of law and its supposedly controlling effect on the social order. Contact showed that in each instance there were important unofficial counter-ideas and activities imbedded in the events of the time. The conclusion from this is that in approaching the study of any legal order, one must presume that there is concurrently a considerable, active unofficial reality and that it has its own effects and momentum and should be addressed.