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Institute for Law and Rationality

Law needs a model of human behavior. The law and economics model has proven quite useful for many reasons, including its parsimony. However, many scholars have concluded that the parsimony comes at an unacceptable cost: too much realism is sacrificed. The challenge is to construct a model that is, in Albert Einstein's notable phrase, "as simple as possible but no simpler." Behavioral law and economics and behavioral economics are attempting to rise to the challenge.

The Institute for Law and Rationality seeks to contribute to this effort, promoting interdisciplinary collaborations among legal scholars and scholars in such fields as psychology, political science, sociology, anthropology, economics (and neuroeconomics) to inquire into how the law does and should understand human behavior. The Institute's aim is to help develop a model of human behavior that lawmakers can use to ground public policy. The Institute will conduct seminars and conferences and host distinguished visitors.

The Institute for Law and Rationality is also affiliated with the Institute for Law and Economics.

2008-09 Events


OCTOBER

Friday
10/31/08		 Symposium: "Emerging Paradigms of Rationality: Theory and Applications"

NOVEMBER

Saturday
11/1/08		 Symposium: "Emerging Paradigms of Rationality: Theory and Applications"

Thursday
11/6/08

Fall 2008 Reception
3:30 pm, Lindquist & Vennum Conference Room

Reception in honor of "The Self and Other" conference publication in a special edition of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology.

Special Guest Speaker and Distinguished Visitor:
Professor Barry Schwartz, Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action, Swarthmore College.

Prof. Schwartz has authored several books including The Paradox of Choice where he persuasively explains how and why the abundance of choice in modern society is actually making us miserable, and The Costs of Living: How Market Freedom Erodes the Best things in Life.

JANUARY

Wednesday
1/28/09		 Distinguished Visitor Professor Leo Katz, Frank Carano Professor of Law, Penn Law.
Thursday
1/29/09		 Distinguished Visitor Professor Leo Katz, Frank Carano Professor of Law, Penn Law.

MARCH

Thursday
3/26/09		 Distinguished Visitor Professor Richard Brooks, Yale Law School
Friday
3/27/09		 Distinguished Visitor Professor Richard Brooks, Yale Law School

FORTHCOMING

Date TBA "A Conversation on Women and Trust"
Professor Susan Sered, Senior Research Associate, Suffolk University and Professor June Carbone, Edward A. Smith/Missouri Professor of Law, University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law
Date TBA Distinguished Visitor Professor Kevin McCabe, Professor of Economics & Law, George Mason University School of Law
 
 

Director

Claire A. Hill
University of Minnesota Law School

Advisory Board

Avner Ben-Ner
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

Richard Brooks
Yale Law School

Mary Anne Case
The Law School, University of Chicago

Don Langevoort
School of Law, Georgetown University

George Loewenstein
Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University

Geoffrey Miller
The New York University School of Law

Frederick Schauer
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Unversity

Barbara Anne Spellman
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia

Kathleen Vohs
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

Assistant

Julie Hunt
University of Minnesota Law School
huntx179@umn.edu