AEI and Brookings Launch Education Program for State Court Judges

The AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies is launching the AEI-Brookings Judicial Education Program, which will offer courses to state court judges beginning this fall.

The classes will focus on the fundamental concepts of economics, finance, accounting, statistics, and scientific method, with an emphasis on how those disciplines are used in litigation. They will be taught by scholars affiliated with AEI and Brookings, as well as professors from various universities. Classes will be held at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

The new AEI-Brookings program continues a judicial education program that was offered until last year at the University of Kansas (Lawrence) and at Chapman University in Orange, California. Over 1,000 state court judges from forty-nine states participated in those programs from 1995 until 2002. As before, state judges will apply to participate in the program, as their schedules permit.

Robert Litan, vice president and director of the Brookings Economic Studies program, Robert Hahn, director of the Joint Center, and A. Lee Fritschler, vice president and director of the Center for Public Policy Education at Brookings, will oversee the program, which will be directed by Henry N. Butler, the James Farley Professor of Economics at Chapman University.

“All of us at the AEI-Brookings Joint Center are excited about working with Professor Butler to continue this valuable educational program for state judges,” said Litan.

Professor Butler previously served as director of the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University and director of the Law and Organizational Economics Center at the University of Kansas. He will coordinate program direction with Paige V. Butler, who previously served as associate director of the Law and Organizational Economics Center at the University of Kansas and director of Chapman University’s Law and Organizational Economics Center.