As of 1 January 2025, Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko has been reappointed as Professor on the joint chair of Quantitative Empirical Legal Studies at Erasmus School of Law. This chair, which Kantorowicz-Reznichenko has held since 2021 together with Pieter Desmet, is part of the externally financed Sector Plan for Law. By integrating empirical methods into legal scholarship, Kantorowicz-Reznichenko has played a key role in embedding Empirical Legal Studies in both research and education, shaping legal understanding and influencing policy and practice.
Law does not exist in isolation—it functions within society and is shaped by institutions, human behaviour, and social attitudes. Understanding law, therefore, requires more than analysing legal texts; it demands an examination of how law operates in the real world. Legal empiricism provides just that. Instead of focusing on how laws are written and interpreted, empirical legal research asks: How is law applied in practice? What are its effects? How do people experience and engage with the legal system? In this way legal empiricism bridges the gap between legal theory and reality. Once viewed as distinct from traditional legal scholarship, this approach is now becoming part of legal education and research. Kantorowicz-Reznichenko is committed to advancing the acceptance and adoption of empiricism in the legal field.
Studying human behaviour to improve legal systems
Kantorowicz-Reznichenko’s research encompasses three main areas: behavioural insights in law and public policy, criminal law (particularly income-dependent fines), and international criminal law. She conducts experimental studies, such as investigating ideological bias in constitutional decisions and the deterrent potential of day fines, alongside large-scale empirical projects on public attitudes toward policy. Notable examples of her research are her contribution to a recent study in which behavioural strategies were tested to understand how to boost public support for climate policies. Another study explored whether political biases influence major legal decisions and whether behavioural insights can help reduce them.
During her professorship Kantorowicz-Reznichenko’s has made substantial investments in advancing legal research, culminating in the founding of three research centres: the Erasmus Center for Empirical Legal Studies (ECELS), the Netherlands Academy for Empirical Legal Studies and the European Society of Empirical Legal Studies. These and other foundational efforts lay the groundwork for high-quality research in the future. Her future research will focus on three key areas that impact people's lives: fair punishment in criminal law, justice in international courts, and consumer rights.
Understanding law in the real world
Empirical legal research provides essential tools to examine laws, regulations, and legal systems in practice, ensuring that they are effective and equitable. Its findings have a direct impact on policymaking and society, highlighting the importance of grounding legal scholarship in real-world data. Building on this, a key focus of the chair remains the commitment to integrating empirical research into both research and application of law.
Kantorowicz-Reznichenko’s research aligns with the Erasmus School of Laws vision that law should be studied in its societal and economic context. Her efforts to embed empirical legal studies in the curriculum follows the ambition of Erasmus School of Law to strengthen the position of empirical legal research in education.
The Board of Erasmus School of Law congratulates Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko on her reappointment and wishes her all the best with her activities.
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