Data Analysis for Legal Scholarship

Data analysis in legal scholarship is part of a broader trend in legal scholarship toward more empirical legal research. Empirical research is research based on facts, observation, or experiments (rather than on theories or opinions). Empirical legal research involves using methods and approaches to research questions from other disciplines - largely social science disciplines like political science, economics, sociology, psychology, etc - to answer questions related to the law. Many of these methods involve finding or generating data and then using a tool or set of tools to analyze and visualize that data in order to support an argument or claim.

This guide will give a brief introduction to some Data Analysis Tools, Where to Find Data and Statistics that could be utilized to answer questions related to the law, and Where to Learn More about these tools and methods.

Additionally, on this Home page you will find links to some publications focused on empirical legal scholarship, as well as some organizations and professional associations that focus on empirical legal research and supporting the scholars who do that work.