SOCIAL SCIENCE AND CIVIL JUSTICE
MAY 22-23, 2025
In-Person and Online
DePaul Conference Center
1 E. Jackson Boulevard, 8th Floor
Chicago, Illinois
THE 31ST
ANN
UAL CLIFFORD SYMPOSIUM
ON TORT LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY
SOCIAL SCIENCE AND CIVIL JUSTICE
For over a century, social science and civil justice have influenced one another, fueling debates that drive innovation and expose systemic challenges. That conversation, generated out of the findings of the psychologists who observe and analyze human behavior, has produced new insights and procedures but also sharp criticism of the way lawyers have gone about their work and the way social scientists have conducted their assessments of the civil justice system.
This year’s Clifford Symposium revisits a crucial topic—the influence, or absence thereof, of key social science insights on civil justice. The symposium will explore five key questions raised by social science scholarship. The first, and the original inspiration for this program, is the impact of the oeuvre of the late Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner in Economics. It will then turn to the work of another outstanding social scientist, Tom Tyler, whose insights about voice and legitimacy have had a profound influence on how we think about civil justice processes. The symposium will then consider what social science research might teach us about decision maker prejudice and bias, as well as how judges perform their assigned tasks. Finally, it will examine the integrity of social science research and its broader implications for the legal system.
THE
31ST ANNUAL
CLIFFORD SYMPOSIUM
ON TORT LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY
AGENDA
THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2025
9:00 REGISTRATION AND CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
10:00 OPENING REMARKS
Julie Lawton Interim Dean, DePaul University College of Law
Stephan Landsman
Emeritus Professor, DePaul College of Law; Director, Clifford Symposium
10:15 SESSION I: THE KAHNEMAN OEUVRE
Noisy Law [Zoom Presentation]
Cass Sunstein, Harvard University
Legal Theory After the Behavioral Revolution
Russell Korobkin, UCLA
Jeffrey Rachlinski, Cornell University
Thinking Fast About Tort Liability
Jamie Macleod, Brooklyn Law School
Reflections on Danny Kahneman’s Influence on Legal Scholarship
Jennifer Robbennolt, University of Illinois
Discussant: Robert Rabin, Stanford University
12:00 LUNCH (provided)
1:00 SESSION II: TOM TYLER: VOICE AND LEGITIMACY
The Procedural Justice of Video Evidence
Yael Granot, Smith College
Voice, Legitimacy and Trial by Jury
Valerie Hans, Cornell University
Procedural Justice in Trump’s America
Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff, Washington University
Using Lay Legitimacy Judgments as a Basis for Designing Civil Legal Procedures
Tom Tyler, Yale University
Discussant: David Hyman, Georgetown University
2:45 BREAK
3:05 SESSION III: PREJUDICE AND BIAS
How Biased Beliefs About Vulnerability to Harm Influence Assessments of Tort Damages
Nathan Cheek, University of Maryland
Roseanna Sommers, University of Michigan
Probabilistic Harm and Presumptions of Prejudicial Preferences
Erik Girvan, University of Oregon
What the Law Can—and Cannot—Do About Bias in the Mind
Neil Lewis, Jr., Cornell University
Enhancing Participation During Deliberations: What Real Juries Can Teach Us
Mary R. Rose, University of Texas
Discussant: Timothy Lytton, Georgia State University
4:50 END OF DAY ONE
FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2025
8:00 REGISTRATION AND CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
9:00 SESSION IV: JUDICIAL PARTIALITY
Obama Judges v. Trump Judges: Presidential Proxies for Judicial Bias
Tracey George, Vanderbilt University
Free to Judge, Revisited
Michael Kang, Northwestern University
Joanna Shepherd, Emory University
The Puzzling Persistence of Judicial Objectivity in the Age of Social Science
Anthony Sebok, Cardozo Law School
Rebuilding Reasonableness with Social Science
Kevin Tobia, Georgetown University
Discussant: Stephan Landsman, DePaul University
10:45 BREAK
11:05 SESSION V: INTEGRITY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Citation After Retraction: The Half-Life of Stale Social Science Research in Legal Scholarship
Yonathan Arbel, University of Alabama
Litigation, Jury Consultants and Social Science: A Modest Proposal
Michael Heise, Cornell University
The Open Science Movement and Its Implications for Expert Testimony
Rob MacCoun, Stanford University
What We Should Know About the Reliability of Empirical Legal Studies
Kathryn Zeiler, Boston University
Discussant: TBD
12:50 CONCLUDING REMARKS
SYMPOSIUM FACULTY
Yonathan Arbel University of Alabama
Nathan Cheek University of Maryland
Tracey George Vanderbilt University
Erik Girvan University of Oregon
Yael Granot Smith College
Valerie Hans Cornell University
Michael Heise Cornell University
Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff Washington University
David Hyman Georgetown University
Michael Kang Northwestern University
Russell Korobkin UCLA
Stephan Landsman DePaul University
Neil Lewis, Jr. Cornell University
Timothy Lytton Georgia State University
Rob MacCoun Stanford University
Jamie Macleod Brooklyn Law School
Robert Rabin Stanford Law School
Jeffrey Rachlinski Cornell University
Jennifer Robbennolt University of Illinois
Mary R. Rose University of Texas
Anthony Sebok Cardozo Law School
Joanna Shepherd Emory Law School
Roseanna Sommers University of Michigan
Cass Sunstein Harvard University
Kevin Tobia Georgetown University
Tom Tyler Yale University
Kathryn Zeiler Boston University
In 1994, Robert A. Clifford (’76) endowed a faculty chair in tort law and social policy. The chair gives meaningful expression to his belief that the civil justice system serves a number of vital interests in American society. The Clifford Chair at DePaul provides a vehicle for exploration of the civil justice system in an intellectually rigorous fashion.
In addition to providing support for faculty research and teaching, the endowment makes possible an annual symposium addressing a timely issue in the civil justice area. The purpose of the symposium is to bring the latest scholarship and advances in legal practice to lawyers and scholars who specialize in tort law, civil justice and related fields. Professor Stephan Landsman is the current organizer and director of the symposium underwritten by the Clifford Chair.
PAST CONFERENCE TOPICS
2024
The Legacy of Industrywide Deadly Misconduct
2023
New Torts?
2022
Litigating the Public Good: Punishing Serious Corporate Misconduct
2021 Civil Litigation in a Post-COVID World
2020
The Opioid Crisis: Where Do We Go from Here?
2019
Rising Stars: A New Generation of Legal Scholars Looks at Civil Justice
2018
Patient Safety: How Might the Law Help
2017
The Impact of Dark Money on Judicial Elections and Behavior
2016
Privacy, Data Theft and Corporate Responsibility
2015
The Supreme Court, Business and Civil Justice
2014
In Honor of Jack Weinstein
2013
Brave New World: The Changing Face of Litigation and Law Firm Finance
2012
A Celebration of the Thought of Marc Galanter
2011 Festschrift for Robert Rabin
2010
The Limits of Predictability and the Value of Uncertainty
2009
Rising Stars: A New Generation of Scholars Looks at Civil Justice
2008
The Challenge of 2020: Preparing a Civil Justice Reform Agenda for the Coming Decade
2007
Distortions in the Attorney/Client Relationship: Threats to Sound Advice?
2006
Is the Rule of Law Waning in America?
2005
Who Feels Their Pain? The Challenge of Non-Economic Damages in Civil Litigation
2004
Starting Over: Redesigning the Medical Malpractice System
2003
After Disaster: The September 11th Compensation Fund and the Future of Civil Justice
2002
Export Import: American Civil Justice in a Global Context
2001
Smoke Signals: Civil Justice in the Wake of the Tobacco Wars
2000
Civil Litigation and Popular Culture
1999
Judges as Tort Lawmakers
1998
The American Civil Jury: Illusion and Reality
1997
Contingent Fee Financing of Litigation in America
1996
Tort Law and the Science of the Twenty-First Century
1995
ADR and Torts: Implications for Practice and Reform
THE 31ST ANNUAL CLIFFORD SYMPOSIUM ON TORT LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY
REGISTRATION AND CLE
Register for this free CLE event by May 22 at 2025Clifford.eventbrite.com.
There is a room cap of 100 in-person attendees, and online participants will receive a link to view the presentation from InReach just ahead of the event.
No proof of vaccination is required of guests, and masks are optional. You may be asked to show your ID while on campus. We know your time is valuable, and we appreciate your patience and cooperation.
DePaul University College of Law is an accredited Illinois MCLE provider. This program is worth up to 10.5 hours of general CLE credit.
Day 1: Up to 6.5 credits
Day 2: Up to 4.0 credits
0142_24-25
René Magritte, The false mirror, 1928, Museum of Modern Art (New York City, United States); La Trahison des images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe), 1928-1929, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, United States); Golconda, 1953, The Menil Collection (Houston, United States)