The New Legal Realism: Volume 1

This is the first of two volumes announcing the emergence of the new legal realism as a field of study. At a time when the legal academy is turning to social science for new approaches, these volumes chart a new course for interdisciplinary research by synthesizing law on the ground, empirical research, and theory. Volume 1 lays the groundwork for this novel and comprehensive approach with an innovative mix of theoretical, historical, pedagogical, and empirical perspectives. Their empirical work covers such wide-ranging topics as the financial crisis, intellectual property battles, the legal disenfranchisement of African-American landowners, and gender and racial prejudice on law school faculties. The methodological blueprint offered here will be essential for anyone interested in the future of law-and-society.

Elizabeth Mertz is John and Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and Research Faculty at the American Bar Foundation. She is the author of The Language of Law School: Learning to 'Think Like a Lawyer' (2007), co-winner of the Herbert Jacob Prize of the Law and Society Association.

Stewart Macaulay is an internationally recognized leader of the law-in-action approach to contracts and a founder of the modern law-and-society movement. He is the author of Law and the Balance of Power: The Automobile Manufacturers and their Dealers (1966) and Law in Action: A Socio-Legal Reader (2007, with Lawrence Friedman and Elizabeth Mertz).

Thomas W. Mitchell is a professor at Texas A&M University, where he holds a joint appointment in the School of Law and in the Agricultural Economics Department. His research and policy work address property issues within disadvantaged communities. He served as the principal drafter of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, a uniform act designed to strengthen property rights for disadvantaged common property owners, which several states have enacted into law.