Erlanger et al. — New Legal Realism

New Legal Realism (NLR)

Movement integrating empirical social science with legal analysis to study how law functions in everyday life

Bottom-up research

Focus on ordinary people’s lived experiences with law

Empirical sociolegal research

Use of observation, interviews, anthropology, history, and qualitative methods

Beyond formal institutions

NLR studies how law affects diverse social groups outside courts and statutes

Translation problem

Difficulty communicating across disciplines because law and social science use different assumptions and methods

Interdisciplinary caution

Scholars must recognize divergent epistemologies and goals across disciplines

Situated knowledge

Research is shaped by social and political context; complete neutrality is impossible

Politics of scholarship

Knowledge production reflects power relations and standpoint perspectives

Standpoint scholarship vs positivism

Debate between socially situated approaches and claims of objective neutrality

Globalization and transnational law

NLR studies international organizations and global legal processes influencing domestic law

Legalization strategies

Exporting legal reforms from powerful countries to others may reproduce imperial power dynamics

Pragmatist method

Focus on practical consequences, empirical testing, and adaptability of legal rules

Pragmatism

Legal understanding should be grounded in real-world effects and changing social conditions

Holistic understanding of law

Combines multiple disciplines and perspectives to analyze law’s operation

Top-down and bottom-up research

NLR studies both elites/institutions and marginalized populations

Elite law firms and Black lawyers

Example of combining studies of elite institutions with racial inequality

Black lawyers in elite firms

Research examines barriers, generational shifts, and changing ideas of success and justice

Generational groups of minority lawyers

Original pioneers, Brown generation, hip hop generation, and Millennium Babies

Democratic experimentalism

Pragmatist governance model emphasizing experimentation and institutional learning

New governance model

Flexible, collaborative approaches to regulation and policymaking