CELS Global Brazil 2026

CELS Global Brazil 2026 is the second international edition of the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies held in Brazil and Latin America. The conference takes place June 8–10, 2026, at the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo (Largo de São Francisco) and at Insper. It is organized by CEOE/Unifesp in partnership with the Society for Empirical Legal Studies (SELS) and held jointly with the VI Brazilian Conference on Law and Public Policy (CBDPP).

The conference is interdisciplinary by tradition. It draws empirical scholars from law, economics, political science, psychology, and adjacent disciplines, with a focus on credible identification and methodological rigour. Indeed, the 2026 edition operates in deliberate dialogue with the annual SELS conference at Northwestern, which holds its twentieth edition in October 2026. The two events together mark twenty years of organised empirical legal studies as a scientific community.

Each parallel session lasts an hour and a half and contains up to three papers. Each paper is allocated exactly thirty minutes, strictly timed, and proceeds in this order:

(i) a brief author presentation, about ten minutes in length;

(ii) a substantial commentary by a designated discussant, who has prepared the discussion in advance and engages seriously with the argument, the data, and the methods;

(iii) open discussion with the audience.

The discussant role is one of the defining marks of the CELS tradition. Each paper is paired with a commentator chosen specifically for thematic and methodological fit. The commentary is expected to be substantive, not perfunctory. As a consequence, the conference offers something rare in academic gatherings, namely the chance to see one's work taken apart and put back together by someone who actually read it carefully.

Because the thirty-minute slots are held strictly, participants can move between sessions during the hour and a half. For example, a participant might attend the first paper of "Gender and Legal Institutions" at the start of the slot, walk over to "Court Organization and Efficiency" for the second paper thirty minutes later, and end with the third paper of "Antitrust, Corporate Markets, and Private Contracts". This portability of the audience is intentional and rewards discipline in time-keeping. It turns the conference into a moving conversation across the program rather than a sequence of isolated panels.

In each of the four slots, the parallel rooms host a mix of CELS scientific sessions, special sessions, and CBDPP sessions. The CBDPP track contributes fifteen sessions in total, distributed across the four slots with three to four sessions running in each. The CBDPP sessions follow the same format as the CELS scientific sessions, with strict time-keeping per paper and a designated discussant for each presentation.

As a consequence, a participant can plan a circuit through both conferences in the same afternoon. The first paper of a CELS session, the second of a CBDPP session, and the third of a special session is a perfectly legitimate trajectory, since the timing is aligned across the program.

The two conferences share the venue and the schedule, and there are no separated rooms or restricted spaces. Registered participants of CELS may attend any CBDPP session, and registered participants of CBDPP may attend any CELS session, without further authorisation.

The registration nonetheless determines which certificate is issued to the participant. A CELS registrant receives a CELS certificate, a CBDPP registrant receives a CBDPP certificate. Authors and presenters belong to the modality in which their paper was accepted, regardless of which sessions they choose to attend during the rest of the program. The distinction matters only for the documentation, not for the access.

The confirmed keynote speakers are John J. Donohue III (Stanford), Lee Epstein (Washington University in St. Louis), Adam Chilton (Dean, University of Chicago Law School, with "Why Constitutions Fail", co-authored with Mila Versteeg), and Fabiana Rocha (FEA/USP). The opening ceremony features Minister Luiz Edson Fachin of the Brazilian Supreme Court.

The five special sessions are: the SELS Special Session "Law as Data, Law as Code" with Daniel L. Chen (TSE/CNRS/Hoover) and Corinna Coupette (Aalto/ERC CompLex) on June 9; the two RedeDPP perspectives sessions on teaching and on research in Law and Public Policy on June 9 and June 10; the CELS Latinoamérica panel "Judges Under Pressure" on June 10; and the RBECrim Special Session "Crime, Punishment, and Public Security in Brazil" on June 10. Each special session occupies one of the four parallel slots and runs concurrently with the regular scientific sessions and CBDPP sessions.

The CELS scientific sessions and the keynotes are conducted in English. The CBDPP sessions are conducted in Portuguese, with some sessions in Spanish or English depending on the working group composition. The opening and closing ceremonies provide simultaneous translation arrangements where appropriate.

The working language of the conference as a whole is English, in line with the CELS Global series tradition. Participants are not required to be fluent in Portuguese to attend the CELS sessions, the special sessions, or the keynotes. Cross-attendance at CBDPP sessions follows the language of each session.