26: Law and Courts

Jeff Yates, Binghamton University, SUNY, jyates@binghamton.edu

The Law and Courts Section invites proposals for papers and panels for the 2010 meeting of the American Political Science Association in Washington, D.C. The theme of the conference is “The Politics of Hard Times: Citizens, Nations, and the International System under Economic Stress.” Certainly, the work of scholars in our section is very relevant to this theme. While we welcome outstanding proposals on all Law and Courts topics, we particularly encourage proposals that investigate how legal institutions and legal actors engage and deal with the politics of hard times. This year’s theme prompts many interesting inquiries. How do legal institutions and actors react to economic hardship? Does economic stress influence legal outcomes or the process by which those outcomes are obtained? How do citizens perceive and evaluate legal institutions, actors, and outcomes in periods of economic hardship? Of course, our section has a rich history of addressing the relative experiences of the “haves” and “have nots” in the legal system, and this line of inquiry is especially relevant today. We hope to receive a wide array of proposals, encompassing diverse theoretical, practical, and methodological perspectives.