The Court of Claims Lab studies historical and modern day challenges to the rule of law, working to understand both the political construction of judicial institutions and testing the effects of those institutions on the day-to-day work of judging. To do so, the lab is building a comprehensive database of all of the decisions the Court of Claims has rendered since its creation in 1855, amounting to more than 35,000 cases.

A central goal of the lab is training graduate and undergraduate students, giving them hands-on experience in data collection and analysis. I support students’ research with mentoring in regular lab meetings and close collaborations on research projects. To date, more than 40 students have participated in the lab’s work. Additional information about the lab can be found at it’s institutional web site, here.