Duke University has announced a $5 million grant from the Duke Endowment to its law school in support of the Center for Judicial Studies.

The grant — which will count toward the law school's goal of raising $85 million as part of the $3.25 billion Duke Forward campaign — will fund an endowment to support the operations of the center, which was established in 2011 to enhance judicial education and the quality of the judiciary as well as Americans' understanding of judicial institutions. To that end, the center has launched a master's degree program in judicial studies and supports scholarly research and conferences on judicial institutions and decision making.

"Ultimately, our aim is to protect and improve our judicial institutions through strengthening the education of individual judges and by qualitatively improving collective knowledge about judicial decision making and judicial institutions," said David F. Levi, dean of the law school and a former chief U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of California. "Judges participating as students will become more capable; JD students as research assistants will become more knowledgeable about judicial institutions, processes, and law reform; research into judicial studies by scholars will be of higher quality, greater relevance, and accuracy; and the legal profession will be better coordinated in its efforts to improve the law. This long-term funding from the Duke Endowment will help us realize these important results."