19th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS)
October 24-25, 2025
Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001
Georgetown University Law Center is pleased to host the 19th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS) on October 24-25, 2025. CELS is an interdisciplinary gathering that draws empirical researchers from across the United States and the world, bringing together scholars in law, economics, political science, psychology, and other fields who are interested in the empirical analysis of law and legal institutions.
This conference is co-sponsored by Georgetown Law and the Society for Empirical Legal Studies.
Submissions
We welcome submission of papers within the following areas:
- Administrative Law and Legislation
- AI, Privacy, and Technology
- Antitrust and IP
- Bankruptcy and Corporate Finance
- Civil Procedure, Litigation, and Dispute Resolution
- Constitutional Law and Political Economy
- Contracts, Commercial Law, and Consumer Law
- Corporate Law and Securities Regulation
- Courts and Judging
- Crime, Criminal Law, and Policing
- Election Law and Law & Politics
- Empirical and Experimental Methods
- International Law, Comparative Law, and Immigration
- Labor, Employment, and Discrimination
- Legal Education and Legal Practice
- Property and Environmental Law
- Tax and Public Finance
- Torts, Health Law, and Insurance
- Other
Acceptance of a paper or poster for CELS 2025 constitutes your agreement to be a commentator on another paper that will be presented at CELS 2025.
Updated submission deadline: June 27, 2025
Schedule for CELS 2025
Friday, October 24
- Breakfast – 8:00 – 9:00
- Session I – 9:00-10:45
- Plenary – 11:00-12:00
- Lunch – 12:15-1:15
- Session II – 1:30 – 3:15
- Session III – 3:30-5:15 PM
- Posters and reception – 5:30 – 7:30 PM
- Dinner on your own
Saturday, October 25
- Breakfast – 8:00 – 9:00
- Session IV- 9:00 – 10:45
- Session V – 11:00 – 12:45
- Lunch and poster award – 1:00 – 2:00
- Session VI – 2:15 – 4:00 PM
Keynote Address:
Prof. Uri Simonsohn, “From False Positives to Positively False: Past, Current, and Future Efforts to Make Social Science More Credible”
Details on timing for each paper being presented:
Each paper is allocated 35 minutes.
The presenter has 17-18 minutes.
The discussant has 7-8 minutes.
Discussion among those present will occupy the remaining time.
CELS 2025 has a limited set of funds available to support students and other scholars who face financial hardship in attending. If you are applying for a registration fee waiver, do not register until you have received instructions on how to proceed. Fee waivers will not be applied retroactively.
To apply for a registration fee waiver and/or travel support, click here.
CELS 2025 Agenda
Each panel is scheduled for two hours, and will include three papers. Presentations proceed in the order listed on the program. Moderators should keep their panels strictly on schedule. This will allow attendees to switch rooms during concurrent sessions.
Each paper is allotted 40 minutes: 18 minutes (max.) for the author’s presentation, 8 minutes for the discussant comments (max.), and 14 minutes for Q&A (min.). The last presenter in each session is the moderator, meaning they are responsible for giving — and enforcing — time cues to the other presenters. Time cards will be available in each room.
Directions and Accommodations
For those of you who have not been to Georgetown Law, you can find details on the campus here.
There are many hotels within walking distance of Georgetown Law, and many more that are a short metro or Uber/Lyft ride away. A list of nearby hotels would include the following:
Conference History
The Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS) was launched in 2006, in response to the growing level of empirical scholarship in law schools and elsewhere. It has thus far been held at the following, in each case with generous support from the host school.
- University of Texas School of Law (2006)
- NYU School of Law (2007)
- Cornell Law School (2008)
- USC Gould School of Law (2009)
- Yale Law School (2010)
- Northwestern Pritzker School of Law (2011)
- Stanford Law School (2012)
- University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (2013)
- UC Berkeley School of Law (2014)
- Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (2015)
- Duke University School of Law (2016)
- Cornell Law School (2017)
- University of Michigan Law School (2018)
- Claremont McKenna College (2019)
- University of Toronto Faculty of Law (March 2022)
- University of Virginia School of Law (November 2022)
- University of Chicago Law School (2023)
- Emory University School of Law (2024)