Kathryn Hendley

Professor Hendley’s research focuses on legal and economic reform in the former Soviet Union. Following in the Wisconsin “law in action” tradition, her research explores how ordinary Russians experience law.

Her monograph, Everyday Law in Russia (Cornell University Press, 2017), is based on participant-observation research in the recently-created justice-of-the-peace courts as well as on focus groups conducted in the summers of 2007 and 2008.  Her research documents the dualistic nature of the Russian legal system and on the willingness of Russians to make use of the formal legal system.  This project was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Council on Eurasian and East European Research, and the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, as well as a Fulbright research award for the 2011-12 academic year, which she spent in Russia.