Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies

Mission

The Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies (CILPS) promotes interdisciplinary programs of research, teaching, and public outreach designed to shed light on the nature and operation of law and legal institutions, as well as the impacts of law on society and culture.

CILPS embodies the conviction that no single disciplinary perspective is adequate for understanding these issues, and that multidisciplinary approaches are essential to address the social opportunities and challenges in which law can play a constructive role.

CILPS is especially active in bringing together legal scholars with scholars from the social sciences, the humanities, and the range of disciplines (including the social sciences, the humanities, and science and engineering) that are relevant to an exploration of our emerging Information Society.

Our multidisciplinary approach seeks a caliber of intellectual cross-fertilization and analysis that will lead to the crafting of meaningful agendas and solutions, both for further research and for the development of social policy in the public interest. CILPS has a longstanding commitment to supporting rigorous empirical approaches to legal and social analysis.

Recognizing the intrinsic relevance of multidisciplinary analysis to the development of law and public policy on complex social issues, CILPS is housed at the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University. On a campus uniquely rich in the breadth of its academic endeavors, CILPS strives to be a lead catalyst in forging collaborations across school and departmental lines for the benefit of the University as a whole.

Focus Areas

Law and Humanities
The Center helps foster interdepartmental projects that bring humanist methods and perspectives to bear on the study of law and legal institutions. Key partners includes the Departments of English and History. Current projects and areas of interest include:

• Legal History Seminars
• Legal Narrative
• Law & Culture

Law, Policy and Social Science
The Center supports interdisciplinary social science research, often with an empirical component, that sheds light on the creation, implementation, and impacts of law and legal institutions. Areas of focus include:

• Law and Public Policy
• Law and Economics
• Law and Sociology
• Empirical Legal Studies
• Judicial Behavior
• Justice for Children Project

Law and the Information Society
The Center promotes interdisciplinary initiatives uniting the law school with social scientists, technologists, and humanists - on both a campus-wide and interscholastic basis - designed to examine the impacts of new information and communications technologies on law, government and society. Areas of focus include:

• E-Government
• E-Democracy
• Privacy and Security
• Law and Policy
• I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society