Can Law Become a Science? A Test and a Discussion
“The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.” So said Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., but his word may not be the final one.
The Harvard Law School Association of Orange County and the Harvard Law Access to Justice Lab invite you to an online presentation on fascinating and cutting-edge developments in criminal law and the potential for scientific techniques to fundamentally alter the legal profession.
HLS Professor James Greiner, Director of the Access to Justice Lab, has been at the forefront of efforts to use empirical methods to transform the practice of law from an art into a science. He will discuss “Risk Assessment Instruments in Criminal Law”: how randomized field experiments and data analysis can improve judges’ and lawyers’ decisions on such issues as whether to release criminal defendants pending trial, or even potentially help guide prosecutors’ charging decisions and judges’ sentencing decisions. Among other things, Professor Greiner will describe the findings of an ongoing study in Wisconsin to put these methods into practice.
The presentation will be moderated by Josh Robbins '04, a former federal prosecutor and the Chair of the White Collar & InvestigatioHLns practice at Buchalter.
CLE credit will be provided.
HLS Professor James Greiner
Thursday, January 21, 2021, 12:00 pm PT
Zoom meeting instructions to be provided to those who RSVP at least one week before the event.
