Law and Society Association

The Law and Society Association (LSA) is an international scholarly organization established in 1964 to advance the social scientific, empirical, and historical analysis of legal institutions. While doctrinal legal scholarship analyzes statutory texts and appellate court opinions, sociolegal researchers examine law as an active social practice, investigating how legal rules are enacted, resisted, enforced, or avoided in everyday life. In academic research, the association serves as the primary interdisciplinary nexus connecting legal scholars with sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, economists, and historians investigating empirical legal questions.

Understanding the organization’s role is essential for empirical scholars mapping what legal studies encompasses across disciplines. The association provides structured frameworks for international collaboration, sponsors specialized working groups known as Collaborative Research Networks (CRNs), and oversees peer-reviewed publishing through its flagship journal, Law & Society Review.

What it is

The Law and Society Association is an interdisciplinary membership society dedicated to understanding law within its broader social, political, cultural, and economic contexts. Founded during an era when American legal scholarship focused almost exclusively on formal case law doctrines, the LSA provided a methodological home for researchers interested in empirical legal studies, the sociology of law, and law in action. Membership encompasses scholars, graduate researchers, and policy analysts across more than 60 countries.

Unlike professional bar associations that regulate legal practice, the LSA is strictly an academic research organization. It does not provide legal advice, accredit law schools, or advocate for specific litigation positions. Instead, it provides the institutional infrastructure for rigorous empirical research, conference exchange, and peer-reviewed scholarly dissemination. Scholars within the association investigate diverse topics including dispute resolution mechanisms, judicial behavior, access to justice, compliance with administrative regulations, policing practices, and the globalization of legal frameworks.

Who runs it and what it covers

The Law and Society Association is governed by an elected Board of Trustees and an Executive Committee led by the Association President, Secretary, and Treasurer, with executive operations managed through its administrative office. Editorial oversight of its academic publications is delegated to independent editorial boards selected from leading sociolegal faculty.

The association covers several core research initiatives and disciplinary programs:

• Law & Society Review (LSR): Established in 1966, this quarterly, peer-reviewed journal is the flagship publication of the association. Published on behalf of the LSA by Cambridge University Press, LSR features theoretical essays, qualitative fieldwork, quantitative regressions, mixed-methods studies, and book reviews examining the relationship between law and society. Unlike student-edited American law reviews, LSR follows strict double-blind peer review common to social science journals.
• Collaborative Research Networks (CRNs): Structured thematic working groups that organize collaborative research projects, coordinate conference sessions, and facilitate continuous scholarship across institutions. Over 50 active CRNs focus on distinct domains such as international law, empirical criminal justice, feminist legal theory, regulatory governance, and indigenous rights.
• Annual Conferences: The Law and Society Association annual meeting is held each year, bringing together thousands of scholars across six continents. Every five years, the LSA convenes an international meeting co-hosted with regional partner bodies such as the Research Committee on the Sociology of Law (RCSL), the Canadian Law and Society Association, and the Japanese Association of Sociology of Law.
• Early Career and Graduate Workshops: Dedicated professional training seminars and dissertation mentorship institutes held immediately prior to the annual meeting to train emerging scholars in empirical legal research methodologies and research ethics.

How to search or use it

Navigating the LSA’s public repositories, journal archives, and collaborative networks involves distinct steps for academic researchers:

1. Consulting the LSA Research Portal: Access the official portal at lawandsociety.org to review active governance notices, award announcements, and committee reports documenting ongoing field priorities.
2. Browsing Collaborative Research Networks: Navigate to the Collaborative Research Networks directory under the Communities tab to identify active research clusters aligned with your methodology or topical specialization.
3. Contacting CRN Organizers: Review the listed faculty coordinators for your chosen CRN and submit an expression of interest summarizing your research agenda to join working listservs and collaborative calls.
4. Submitting to the Annual Meeting: When the annual conference call for papers opens, submit an abstract or panel proposal through the LSA submission portal, tagging the relevant CRN to ensure review by domain specialists.
5. Accessing Journal Archives: Locate peer-reviewed articles through Cambridge Core’s Law & Society Review platform, utilizing volume and issue indices or topic search filters to retrieve empirical literature.
6. Preparing a Manuscript for LSR: Format empirical manuscripts according to Cambridge University Press submission guidelines, ensuring author anonymity for double-blind peer review and adhering to citation standards.

Strengths and limits

The LSA offers distinct methodological strengths alongside institutional boundaries that researchers must balance:

Strengths:

• Rigorous Interdisciplinary Review: Provides a rigorous double-blind peer-review venue for empirical legal research that bridges the gap between social science methodologies and legal analysis.
• Global Research Infrastructure: CRNs provide durable networks for cross-national comparisons, enabling researchers from diverse legal traditions to collaborate on shared grants and comparative datasets.
• Methodological Breadth: Welcomes qualitative ethnographies, statistical modeling, historical archives, and critical legal theories without enforcing a single methodological doctrine.

Limits:

• Divergent Disciplinary Incentives: In standard legal academia, tenure committees often prioritize student-edited law reviews, creating differing career incentives compared to social science departments where peer-reviewed journal articles in LSR are paramount. Reviewing law review authorship norms helps clarify these distinct publication paradigms.
• Gated Journal Access: While LSA members receive digital journal access, institutional subscriptions via university libraries or Cambridge Core are required for non-members, leading many scholars to disseminate preprints via disciplinary repositories such as SSRN or SocArXiv (as evaluated in arXiv vs SSRN platforms).
• Non-Operational Platform: The LSA is a scholarly society rather than a legal database provider; it does not host searchable case law dockets or primary statutory text.

Alternatives

Researchers investigating legal systems, empirical methods, and sociolegal topics frequently collaborate across related academic associations and publishing networks:

Organization / Platform	Primary Scope	Peer Review Model	Disciplinary Focus	Key Publication
Law and Society Association (LSA)	Sociolegal studies, empirical legal analysis, law in society	Double-blind peer review	Sociology, political science, legal theory, anthropology	Law & Society Review
Society for Empirical Legal Studies (SELS)	Quantitative, experimental, and statistical legal studies	Double-blind peer review	Empirical economics, applied statistics, law	Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA)	UK and European socio-legal research and policy analysis	Double-blind peer review	Socio-legal studies, criminology, social policy	Journal of Law and Society (affiliated)
American Society of Criminology (ASC)	Criminological theory, criminal justice, crime prevention	Double-blind peer review	Criminology, penology, criminal law, sociology	Criminology
SSRN Legal Scholarship Network (LSN)	Preprint dissemination and working paper circulation	Open working paper repository (editor screened)	Law, regulatory studies, political economy	Subject matter abstract journals

Maintaining ethical standards across all research collaborations, data sharing, and publishing activities remains essential to prevent the institutional consequences of research misconduct.

FAQ

What is the difference between the Law and Society Association and a state bar association?

The Law and Society Association is an academic scholarly organization dedicated to social scientific research into law and legal systems. It does not license attorneys, govern bar admissions, provide legal representation, or establish professional practice standards. State and national bar associations are regulatory and professional bodies for practicing lawyers.

How does publication in Law & Society Review differ from law reviews?

American law reviews are typically edited and managed by law students at individual law schools, evaluating articles on topical relevance and doctrinal analysis. Law & Society Review is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press, where faculty peer reviewers evaluate empirical rigor, methodology, and theoretical contributions through double-blind peer review.

What are Collaborative Research Networks (CRNs)?

Collaborative Research Networks are specialized thematic working groups within the LSA organized by international scholars. They coordinate paper sessions and roundtables at the annual conference, manage collaborative research grants, and maintain disciplinary networks across universities between annual meetings.

When was the Law and Society Association founded?

The Law and Society Association was founded in 1964 by an interdisciplinary group of social scientists and legal academics seeking to study the relationship between law and social behavior.

Sources

• Law and Society Association. “About LSA.” lawandsociety.org. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://www.lawandsociety.org/about-lsa/
• Cambridge University Press. “Law & Society Review.” cambridge.org. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/law-and-society-review
• Law and Society Association. “Collaborative Research Networks (CRNs).” lawandsociety.org. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://www.lawandsociety.org/collaborative-research-networks/
• Law and Society Association. “About Annual Meetings.” lawandsociety.org. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://www.lawandsociety.org/annual-meetings/