Sometimes the incentives of scholarship are personal. Most MSU-DCL faculty members who publish extensively also admit that they enjoy writing and the creative process. We have total academic freedom. If you have certain skills and don't use them, it's hard to be satisfied in life. I have the freedom to write about what I want to.
Publishing boosts the prestige of both the professors and the school.
In family law, my focus is reforming the economics of divorce to reduce the dissonance between the rhetoric of gender equality and the reality of gender roles. Whether my issue is divorce or commerical law, my goal is to expose and remedy the inequity in the law. Professor Bitensky, who has established an international reputation for her expertise on children's rights, has similar motives. I want to advance ideas that could improve social conditions for people. Professor Bitensky doesn't intentionally try to write controversially, although her subject matter often stirs up plenty of debate.