Welcome
to the website for Law and the Emotions: New Directions in Scholarship.
The conference will take place in Berkeley, California on February 8
and 9, 2007, and will bring together leading scholars in the rapidly
developing field of law and the emotions. The goals of the conference
are to showcase new work, forge new avenues of inquiry, and facilitate
collaboration among those in the diverse disciplines that contribute to
the field. Law and the Emotions is the first gathering of its kind
since the May, 1998 meeting in Chicago that evolved into The Passions
of Law (Susan Bandes ed. 1999). In the nearly nine years since, the
study of law and the emotions has become increasingly sophisticated and
interdisciplinary. The core insights of the field—that human emotion is
amenable to rigorous study, that it is highly relevant to law, and that
its role in law is deserving of closer scrutiny—are moving closer to
the academic mainstream in a range of disciplines.
Just as the 1998 meeting moved the then-nascent field to a new level of
focus and prominence, Law and the Emotions aims to move the field yet
further forward by fostering conversation and collaboration among
scholars, particularly in newer areas of analysis. Two prominent
keynote speakers—Arlie Hochschild and Dacher Keltner—will explore
important connections with sociology and psychology. A series of panels
will address cutting-edge issues in the mind sciences, humanities, and
social sciences. Moving away from the traditional focus on emotion as
an internal, subjective experience, the conference will highlight work
that analyzes emotions as relational and dynamic players in the context
of legal institutions. We will conclude with a roundtable discussion.
This roundtable will reflect on the varied ways in which law is capable
of engaging the emotions: for example, by mirroring emotions, acting
upon them, moderating or challenging them, scripting them, and even
bringing them into being.
We hope you will join us for what promises to be an intimate, dynamic, and highly interactive gathering.
Kathryn R. Abrams Herma Hill Kay Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)
Susan Bandes
Distinguished Research Professor, DePaul University College of Law
Hila Keren
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Terry Maroney
Assistant Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School
Left to right: Kathryn Abrams, Susan Bandes, Terry Maroney, Hila Keren.
Photograph by Jim Block
Welcome
to the website for Law and the Emotions: New Directions in Scholarship.
The conference will take place in Berkeley, California on February 8
and 9, 2007, and will bring together leading scholars in the rapidly
developing field of law and the emotions. The goals of the conference
are to showcase new work, forge new avenues of inquiry, and facilitate
collaboration among those in the diverse disciplines that contribute to
the field. Law and the Emotions is the first gathering of its kind
since the May, 1998 meeting in Chicago that evolved into The Passions
of Law (Susan Bandes ed. 1999). In the nearly nine years since, the
study of law and the emotions has become increasingly sophisticated and
interdisciplinary. The core insights of the field—that human emotion is
amenable to rigorous study, that it is highly relevant to law, and that
its role in law is deserving of closer scrutiny—are moving closer to
the academic mainstream in a range of disciplines. 