The mission of the Institute for the Study of Law and Urban Justice is to conduct empirical investigations of the social and legal problems experienced by a wide range of urban constituencies, the intersections between legal institutions and community groups, and emerging forms of urban social control, as well as the strategies associated with legal mobilization for social transformation within the urban context in order to:

• Disseminate results of research to academic and community constituencies;
• Identify best practices relevant to law and urban justice;
• Inform relevant policy and programmatic formation;
• Provide graduate students with exposure to various interdisciplinary sites for research, giving them access to data to further develop their scholarly and civic engagement capabilities.