The City University of Hong Kong School of Law and the Asian Law and Economics Association (AsLEA) are pleased to present the seventh lecture in the Lecture Series in Law and Economics.
This session will feature Professor Daniel Klerman, Edward G. Lewis Chair in Law and History and Director of the Center of Law & Social Science (CLASS) at USC Gould School of Law. Professor Klerman’s scholarship concentrates on Civil Procedure, English Legal History, and Law and Economics. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Law & Economics Association from 2009 to 2012 and was co-president of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies in 2008–09. He is a founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Law & Empirical Analysis and serves on the editorial boards of Law & History Review and the Journal of Legal Analysis. He is a member of the American Law Institute and previously served as USC Law’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs 2009-2011.
In this lecture, Professor Klerman will discuss whether bias against out-of-state litigants exists in the United States. Since the founding, U.S. federal courts have had jurisdiction over cases between citizens of different states. This diversity jurisdiction is primarily justified by the concern that state courts might be biased against out-of-state litigants. For at least one hundred years, however, that justification has been questioned by federal judges and distinguished academics, who have doubted whether such bias continues to exist or ever existed. Drawing on experimental and survey evidence, Professor Klerman will examine both the existence and extent of bias against out-of-state litigants. His findings suggest some bias against out-of-state defendants, especially when parties’ residence is salient. He also provides survey evidence that people will explicitly admit to bias against out-of-state individuals and corporations and that federal courts are more likely to police against lawyer arguments that appeal to bias against out-of-state parties.
The lecture will take place on April 21, 2026 (Tuesday) at 12 p.m. (HKT) and will be held at CityUHK LAU 6-208 and online via Zoom. To receive the Zoom link, please register in advance. Registration closes on April 17, 2026 (Friday).
For more details about the lecture, please refer to the poster below.