Academic Centers

Cutting-edge legal research has long been a hallmark of the Law School. Our faculty lead numerous academic and research centers.

Center on Law and Finance

The Center on Law and Finance advances research on how law interacts with and shapes financial systems. The Center also connects this research to the real world. Continuing the Law School’s commitment to the practical application of legal theory, the Center holds events that foster a meaningful dialogue between academics, practitioners, and judges.

Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values

The Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values established in 2008, sponsors speakers and conferences on a variety of topic in moral, political and legal philosophy, often at their intersection. The Center’s mission encompasses not only the traditional concerns of moral, political, and legal theory—in both Anglophone and European—but also the history of thought about ethical, political, and legal questions as these bear on contemporary questions. Traditional problems of conceptual analysis and normative justification are supplemented by attention to empirical results in the human sciences as they relate to the nature and viability of various forms of normative ordering.

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics

The goal of the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics is to promote the understanding and dissemination of the economic approach to law. It supports research and learning by students, faculty and fellows, and organizes events and activities in Chicago and beyond.

Constitutional Law Institute

Created in 2020, the Constitutional Law Institute supports research and scholarship on longstanding constitutional issues as an integral part of the Law School’s scholarly and research mission. The Institute also shares the Law School’s commitment to free speech and intellectual inquiry that is independent of partisan fashions. The Institute promotes rigorous analysis of constitutional issues and then shares those ideas more broadly with the general public. The Institute additionally hosts events, activities, and visitors.

Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity

The Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity is the Law School’s newest center, established in 2023. The Malyi Center stimulates new research on the sources of sound institutions, their consequences, and the conditions of their endurance. The Malyi Center sponsors academic research on institutions by researchers both within the University of Chicago community and beyond and encourages real-world impact through activities such as conferences, speaker events, and visiting scholars.

The Center for Comparative Constitutionalism

The Law School enjoys an affiliation with The Center for Comparative Constitutionalism, coordinated by Professor Martha C. Nussbaum. Established in 2002, this Center's work focuses on the relationship between constitutional law and the concerns of marginalized or subordinated people and groups.