REU Site: Digital Legal Research Lab

该项目由社会、行为和经济科学局(SBE)的本科生研究经验(REU)站点计划提供资金。它兼具科学和社会效益，并将研究与教育融为一体。掌握法律和科学研究的核心概念能够更深入地探索法律与社会之间的历史偶然性和持续关系；然而，很少有本科生接受过对法律进行严格分析的培训。数字法律研究实验室REU网站的总体目标是为不同的本科生研究人员配备从事数字法律调查所需的分析和技术技能，并在法律和科学研究中产生新的见解。这一基础培训将使学生准备好提出他们自己的分析问题，传播研究成果，建立独特的研究身份，并为资助机会和研究生项目设计具有竞争力的应用程序。这个REU网站将吸引不同的学生群体，他们为数字法律研究贡献了独特的视角。该计划将使法律和科学领域多样化，并培养有才华的本科生，以促进对犯罪、暴力和治安、法律决策、法律动员和正义概念以及诉讼和法律职业的过去和现在趋势的批判性调查。为期十周的密集课程每年将支持八名本科生，将包括有效分析历史和正在进行的法律实践和结构所需的各种方法和工具的方向，介绍混合方法研究设计，以及分析来自数字和物理资源库的主要来源材料。具体地说，学生将分析自由诉讼和人身保护请愿书，其中包括1770年至1924年自由创造的重要案例研究，以展示被边缘化的请愿人在漫长的19世纪挑战剥削的广泛法律动员，他们的大部分未经审查和未发表的故事是美国法律正典的核心。除了评估边缘化人员针对各种形式的机构和人际限制进行法律动员的趋势外，研究人员还将参与档案法律数据的创新重组，从侧重于案件当事人姓名和日期的传统索引形式转变为按各当事方和请愿类型的人口统计和关系数据进行优先排序的系统。使用混合方法，研究人员将提供与家庭法、印度联邦法律、移民法、劳动法、道德监管和奴隶制相关的新见解。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded through the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). It has both scientific and societal benefits and integrates research with education. Mastering concepts central to the study of law and science enables a deeper exploration of the historically contingent and ongoing relationships between law and society; however, few undergraduates are trained to engage in rigorous analysis of the law. The overall goal of the Digital Legal Research Lab REU Site is to equip a diverse cohort of undergraduate researchers with the analytical and technical skills needed to engage in digital legal inquiry and generate new insights in the study of law and science. This foundational training will prepare students to develop their own analytical questions, disseminate research findings, establish distinct research identities, and craft competitive applications for funding opportunities and graduate programs. This REU Site will engage a diverse group of students who contribute unique perspectives to digital legal research. This program will diversify the fields of law and science and train talented undergraduates to advance critical inquiry into past and present trends in crime, violence, and policing; legal decision making; legal mobilization and conceptions of justice; and litigation and the legal profession. The intensive ten-week program will support eight undergraduate students per year and will include an orientation to the varied methodologies and tools needed to effectively analyze historical and ongoing legal practices and structures, an introduction to mixed-methods research design, and analysis of primary source materials from digital and physical repositories. Specifically, students will analyze freedom suits and habeas petitions comprising a vital case study of freedom-making between 1770 and 1924 to demonstrate the widespread legal mobilization of marginalized petitioners who challenged exploitation during the long nineteenth century, and whose largely unexamined and unpublished stories are central to the American legal canon. In addition to assessing trends in marginalized people’s legal mobilization against various forms of institutional and interpersonal confinement, researchers will participate in the innovative restructuring of archival legal data that shifts away from traditional forms of indexing focused on case party names and dates to a system that prioritizes demographic and relational data across parties and petition types. Using a mixed methods approach, researchers will offer novel insights relevant to family law, federal Indian law, immigration law, labor law, morals policing, and slavery.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.