Empirical Studies in Public Law
May 25-26, 2015

Monday, May 25, 2015

Mt. Scopus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

9:00-9:15

Greetings

Yuval Shany, Dean, Law Faculty, Hebrew University

9:15-10:55

Decision Making in Supreme Courts

Lee Epstein, Washington University in St. Louis
The Decision to Depart (or Not) from Constitutional Precedent: An Empirical Study of the Roberts Court (with William M. Landes, and Adam Liptak)
Comments: Shay Lavie, Tel Aviv University

Mark Gergen, UC Berkeley
Common Law Judicial Decision Making: The California Supreme Court 1900-2000 (with Kevin Quinn)

Discrimination and Decision Making in Lower Courts

Tammy Kricheli Katz, Tel Aviv University
He Paid She Paid: Exploiting Israeli Courts' Rulings on Litigation Costs to Explore Gender Biases (with Issi Rosen-Zvi, Talia Fisher and Theodore Eisenberg)
Comments: Ifat Taraboulos, Israeli Courts Research Division
Oren Gazal-Ayal, University of Haifa 
Descriptive Representation and Judicial Outcomes in Multi-Ethnic Societies
(with Guy Grossman, Sam Pimentel and Jeremy M. Weinstein)
Comment: Moshe Shayo, Hebrew University

Lunch

14:20-16:30

Empirically Testing Legal Concepts

Gad Barzilai, University of Haifa 
New-Institutionalism, Legal Culture and the Legal Profession
Comments: Barak Medina, Hebrew University
Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Hebrew University
The reliability of proportionality judgments
Comments: Iddo Porat, College of Law and Business
Keren Weinshal-Margel, Hebrew University
Empirically Testing Judicial Workloads and their Consequences
Comments: Olga Frishman, Hebrew University

16:50-18:30

Voting, Political Behavior and Courts Responsiveness

Douglas M. Spencer, University of Connecticut
Administering the Voting Rights Act after Shelby County (with Christopher S. Elmendorf)
Comments: Yonatan Givati, Hebrew University
Udi Sommer, Tel Aviv University
Rainbows for Rights: The Role of LGBT Activism in Gay Rights Promotion
(with Amanda Murdie and Victor Asal)
Comments: Alon Harel, Hebrew University

19:00

Dinner

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Supreme Court of Israel

8:30-9:30

Guided Tour at the Supreme Court Building

9:30-11:00

Round Table: Do Empirical Legal Studies Matter?

11:20-13:20 

Judicial Responsiveness to Public Opinion

Bert Kritzer, University of Minnesota
Do Judicial Elections Matter?
Comments: Gali Aviv, Israeli courts research division, Israeli Supreme Court
Yoav Dotan, Hebrew University
Judicial and Public Opinions: Electoral and Institutional Trust Consequences of a Strong Judicial Signal Regarding Election Candidates (with Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan and Omer Yair)
Comments: Sharon Gilad, Hebrew University
Avital Mentovich, Harvard University
The Polarizing Court (with Aziz Z. Huq)
Comments: Yoed Helbersberg, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Lunch

Summary and Goodbye