Section Calls for Papers

As has been well-documented in the popular press and scientific literature, there has been a notable increase in vaccine skepticism in the United States. This development has serious health consequences. For example, declining childhood vaccination rates have triggered an uptick in contagious diseases once almost eradicated in the United States – such as measles and pertussis (whooping cough). Recently announced and implemented federal government policies seem aligned with enhanced vaccine skepticism. On June 9, 2025, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., dismissed the entire membership of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and quickly replaced many of those experts with new, and notably more vaccine hesitant, members. HHS has reduced the CDC’s immunization staff and other CDC vaccine experts have resigned. In addition, the National Institutes for Health (NIH) recently terminated nearly three dozen grants devoted to studying vaccine hesitancy and strategies to encourage vaccine uptake.

The Section on Biolaw’s Vaccine Skepticism program offers scholars an opportunity to present their pertinent research and receive feedback from peers and practitioners. Submissions can range from 1000-word abstracts to full drafts. Please send your submission to the Section Chair, Jennifer Oliva, at [email protected] by July 18, 2025.

Final drafts will be due by December 10, 2025.

Further details will be provided to selected participants.

This year’s program, entitled “New Perspectives in Constitutional Law,” provides a platform for scholars to discuss works at any stage in the writing process. There is no specific topic or focus area for this panel. All who seek critical feedback for a new or ongoing project on constitutional law are encouraged to apply.

Eligibility
Submissions are invited from pre-tenure, tenure-track faculty at AALS member law schools.

Submissions
Interested faculty should submit an abstract of roughly 500 words to Christina Horton, MBA, at [email protected], no later than 5:00 p.m. Central Time on Friday, June 6, 2025.

Please indicate “Works-in-Progress – 2026 AALS Annual Meeting” in the subject line of your email.

Abstracts should include your name, institutional affiliation, state of your project (early formative stage, research completed, draft completed, or ready-for-submission), as well as a statement verifying that you meet the eligibility criteria identified above.

Scholars may make only one submission to this Call for Papers. Scholars electing to submit an abstract to this Call for Papers may not make a submission to another Call for Papers issued by the AALS Section on Constitutional Law in connection with the 2026 AALS Annual Meeting.

Publication
The Section will not publish selected papers. Panelists are invited to seek publication through other avenues.

Questions
All questions should be directed to the Section’s Chair-Elect, Richard Albert, by email at [email protected].

Selection Process
Members of the Section-Richard Albert (Chair), Jonathan Marshfield, and Danielle Wingfield-will select the panelists. The Section is committed to adhering to all AALS policies in its selection process.

Selected panelists will be notified by September. If selected, panelists are responsible for costs incurred in participating in the panel, including registration fees for the AALS Annual Meeting in addition to accommodation and travel expenses.

Unconscionability is a staple of teaching first year contracts. The familiar elements of procedural and substantive unconscionability and the possible remedies are often taught as if there is little variation. However, unconscionability in practice is less predictable. This panel will explore the application of the doctrine across various contexts, jurisdictions and legal fields.

In lieu of complete drafts, abstracts of works-in-progress will also be considered. For best consideration please email your submission to Colin Marks at [email protected] (or at my new email address [email protected] – I am moving in the fall) by August 31, 2025.

We will prioritize panels that represent diverse viewpoints, institutions, geography, and backgrounds. We are especially interested in including panelists who have not previously presented at an AALS Annual Meeting. As has been the Section’s practice in recent years, once the panels are selected, we will put out a call for additional panelists to further ensure our section’s panels reflect the priorities indicated above.

To submit a proposal, please send an email to [email protected]. Please include a short description of the proposed panel and a list of proposed speakers. Please make sure to communicate with the people you intend to add to your proposed speaker list before submitting their names for consideration. And again, keep in mind that each panel will have one or more panelists added through a call for participation.

Proposals are due by Friday, June 20. We look forward to receiving your submissions!

As in previous years, we will be conducting this program in an “incubator” format so that we can workshop multiple pieces of scholarship simultaneously in an intimate setting. This format will feature up to six works in progress to be discussed in small groups. We anticipate that this format will produce more direct feedback on the papers and wider participation from program attendees.

The Section seeks to highlight talent across a range of law schools, disciplines, and methodologies and is especially interested in new and innovative research. Please share this call with colleagues—both within and outside of the legal academy.

Proposals must include the following information:

1. A working title;

2. A brief description (between 500-1,000 words, inclusive of footnotes), that explains the substantive content, the empirical methods used, and any preliminary results from the research project undertaken; and

3. A current CV.

Full-time faculty, staff, and administrators of AALS member schools or non-member-fee-paid schools as of the submission deadline are eligible to submit proposals. We will prioritize submissions from faculty, staff, and administrators who are new to empirical work.

Proposals should be submitted electronically to Deborah J. Merritt, Section Chair, via email at [email protected]. The subject line should read “Works in Progress Submission.” Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so please send yours as soon as possible, but no later than September 5, 2025.

Per AALS Leadership, there will be no virtual or hybrid participation in the workshop or any other Annual Meeting program. By submitting a proposal for consideration, you agree to attend the 2026 AALS Annual Meeting Section on the Empirical Study of Legal Education & the Legal Profession Program Session in-person, should your paper be selected for presentation.

Our panel description is as follows:
How are the new presidential administration and new technologies affecting our ecosystem of innovation and creativity? Unlike in many other fields, the new landscape of disruptions, incentives, and opportunities is not entirely clear. How might our government institutions like the USPTO, USCO, NEA, and NIH shape new inventions, markets, and works? How will our pre-2025 doctrinal frameworks fare? How are creators, sources of funding, and businesses responding? Will creativity be chilled-or catalyzed into new movements? This includes an examination of intellectual property’s positive and negative spaces alike-as well as adjacent areas of regulation and government operations that help to shape the production and dissemination of new ideas.

If you are interested in participating in this program, please contact Professor Matthew Sipe at [email protected] by Monday, July 28, 2025. Please include in your response a brief (200-300 words) summary of the work you are doing in this area. Please also include, if available, abstracts of any related scholarly works you have completed or are working on currently. Finally, please include your full name, title, and institutional affiliation.

An “emerging scholar” is defined as a scholar who has held a full-time academic position for seven (7) years or fewer. Each participating scholar will be assigned a senior intellectual property scholar as a designated reviewer who will provide written comments in advance or during the program. The participating scholar will have the opportunity to present their work at the AALS Annual Meeting and field questions and comments from the audience.

For Interested Scholars:
To participate, scholars must be full-time faculty members, including full-time visiting assistant professors or fellows, at AALS member schools. Papers that have been posted on scholarship networks such as SSRN, but have not yet been accepted for publication, are eligible for consideration. Feedback through this program will be most beneficial for mid-stage drafts. Please complete this Google form application by 11:59PM on Monday, July 28, 2025, including an abstract or draft of your paper (preferred), to be considered for participation in the program.

If your paper is selected for participation in the program, you must submit your working draft no later than Friday, December 5, 2025. This deadline is important to guarantee participants have a sufficiently completed draft in time for senior scholar review and the AALS Annual Meeting. The draft does not need to be completely polished or ready for law review submission. We welcome papers in earlier stages when the author can most benefit from feedback. Please be aware that selected participants must register for the AALS Annual Meeting.

For Senior Scholars Interested in Serving as Reviewers
If you are interested in serving as a reviewer this year, please email Professor Michael Goodyear at [email protected], at your earliest convenience. Please also tell us whether you would plan to attend the AALS Annual Meeting. Although we hope many reviewers will attend this session (which requires registering for the AALS Annual Meeting), you need not attend since you will be providing written comments this year.

This pedagogy program asks how intellectual property (IP) professors can and should use theory in the service of teaching law students intellectual property law concepts. Panelists will discuss the use of IP theory in IP pedagogy, including consequentialist, deontological, and critical theories of IP. They might also discuss the use of theories drawn from other areas of legal scholarship and other disciplines in the social sciences, physical sciences, and humanities. Other topics can include which theories are appropriately part of the canon of IP. The program hopes to feature a variety of voices in IP pedagogy and theory, from a range of different perspectives and backgrounds. The panelists will address questions like, “How can IP professors use theory to help students better understand IP doctrine?” and “How can IP professors use theory to help students think critically about the purpose of and justifications for IP?”

If you are interested in participating in this program, please contact Professor Brian Frye at [email protected] by Monday, July 28, 2025. Please include in your response a brief (200-300 words) summary of your perspective on this topic, as well as your full name, title, and institutional affiliation.

This workshop will not be at the annual AALS meeting, but rather held virtually via Zoom on July 8, 2025 from 12:00–3:15PM Eastern. Submitted drafts will be at a stage where they can still benefit from substantial feedback. Accordingly, drafts should not exceed thirty pages and should be excerpted if they are longer. We particularly encourage scholars preparing job talks to apply and use the workshop as a sounding board. We will accept up to four papers, and each paper will be allotted forty-five minutes for presentation and discussion. All selected authors will be expected to read the other papers prior to the workshop. We also encourage IP scholars at any career stage to join the roundtable as discussants. To participate as a presenter or discussant, please send a draft (or request to be a discussant) to Eric Priest at [email protected] by June 15.

Program Description
Each author will describe their book and the data their book relies on. The program will include a discussion of data collection techniques and the incorporation of data into books. Any book published in 2025 or to be published in 2026 that relies on the authors’ own data is eligible for inclusion. The book may be published by an academic press or a popular press. The program is designed to be a relaxed environment to highlight new empirically-driven books published by law professors.

Submission Procedure
Scholars who are interested in participating in the program should send a short summary of their book, including details about the book’s publisher and publication timing, to Professor Pamela Foohey at [email protected] on or before Friday, August 15, 2025. The cover email should state the scholar’s institution. Please title the email: “Submission-Section on Law and the Social Sciences Program.” The Section will let you know about the status of your submission presumptively within a couple weeks after the submission deadline.

Eligibility
Scholars at AALS member law schools are eligible to submit proposals. Per AALS rules, only full-time faculty members and fellows of AALS member law schools are eligible to submit proposals to Sections’ calls for proposals. All participants of the program are responsible for paying their own annual meeting registration fees and travel expenses.

Presentations will be followed by comments from a discussant and the audience. We particularly encourage submissions from early-career scholars and those with unpublished works. 

Submissions can range from 10-page outlines to full drafts. Please send your submission to the Section’s Chair-Elect, Doron Dorfman: [email protected] by July 10. 

Final drafts will be due by December 10, 2025. 

Further details will be provided to selected participants. 

As the next generation of lawyers enters law school, they bring with them their own set of expectations and values regarding professionalism, shaped by a rapidly changing world and digital culture. This session will explore themes such as professional identity formation in law students, particularly in Legal Research and Writing (LRW) courses, and how these students navigate and negotiate their professional development. Additionally, we welcome discussions on the challenges of “the new professionalism,” which encompasses the evolving expectations in an increasingly divided and digital world. This session seeks to foster meaningful conversations about how legal education can adapt to prepare students for a future where professionalism is dynamic, diverse, and increasingly intertwined with technology. The Committee seeks presenters who can speak on a wide range of topics related to the unique challenges faculty face in these ever-changing times.

Possible topics may include:

• How can legal writing professors equip students to meet professionalism expectations in legal practice, and help students develop “soft skills”? And how do both endeavors intersect with Gen Z’s approach to work? For example, do Gen Z students have different attitudes than previous generations regarding things such as: work/life balance, setting boundaries, responding to criticism, appropriate forms of communication, etc.?
• How can technology and professionalism intersect in the classroom? In particular how do artificial intelligence and other technologies reshape both the practice of law and the development of professional values?
• How is the concept of professionalism in legal education evolving, and how should this inform how we engage with Gen Z students?
• How are law schools incorporating professional identity formation into and across the curriculum?
• How might legal writing professors collaborate with faculty in other disciplines to better prepare students for professional development both during and after law school? Additional Guidance Regarding Selection Criteria In addition to the proposed presentation’s contribution to the subject matter of the session, please note other considerations that will inform the Committee’s review and selection process.

The Committee is committed to programming that advances the AALS core value of diversity. We especially welcome submissions from junior faculty, women, people of color, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, immigrants, and others who are members of communities that are underrepresented in legal academia. We also recognize that diversity has many dimensions, including faculty status, years of teaching experience, geographic location, and viewpoint. The Committee evaluates proposals anonymously, so please include in your proposal any information you would like us to know about how your presentation would support the diversity of the program. (See below Submission Instruction 4.)

The Committee encourages proposals from both individuals and groups. While group applications can include speakers from the same school, having speakers from different institutions is encouraged to expand representation. The Committee will consider all individual and group applications as it creates a panel for the session. Applicants—whether individual or group—should be prepared, if selected, to coordinate with others who also have been invited to present. The Committee will appoint a moderator to work with the selected speakers to ensure cohesion among presenters.

The Committee recognizes that well-designed interactive or demonstrative components can enhance the value of presentations but also understands that such components are not always relevant.

Submission Instructions
Please use this link to submit your presentation proposal by 11:59 p.m. PDT on August 29, 2025. You will be asked to include the following information: (1) the name, contact, and biographical information for each proposed presenter, including designation of the primary contact person; (2) a proposed title for your presentation; (3) a detailed description of your presentation, including content and format; (4) a statement of how your presentation promotes diversity; (5) an indication of how many minutes you will need (e.g., 15 or 25 minutes of the entire one-hour-and-forty-five-minute session); and (6) a brief bibliography of materials relevant to your presentation. Please let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to receiving your proposals.

2025-26 LWRR Section’s Program Committee
Lead Co-Chair: Susie Salmon (Arizona) Secondary Co-Chair: Maureen Van Neste (Boston College)
Kate Brem (Houston), Lindsay Head (Jacksonville), Joy Herr-Cardillo (Arizona), Joshua Jones (Cal. Western), Samantha Moppett (Suffolk), Suzanne Reuben (UC Davis), JoAnne Sweeny (Louisville)

The New Voices panel provides an opportunity to showcase the work of scholars who are new to the field of Professional Responsibility. Each scholar selected will present their own work, and for each paper, a senior scholar in the field who has been selected to review the work in advance, will provide constructive commentary on the paper. Papers may address any subject matter within the field – there is no theme for the panel.

Eligibility:

• Submissions are invited from junior faculty (those who are pre-tenure or otherwise with five or fewer years of experience), along with others who are new to writing in the field of Professional Responsibility.
• Those submitting work must be full-time faculty members (including full-time VAPs or fellows) at AALS member law schools.
• Work that has already been published (or will be published prior to the conference) is ineligible for consideration. (Posting on SSRN alone will not be considered as publication.)
• Faculty are encouraged to submit drafts for consideration on the understanding that there will be time to submit a more polished version for the commentator’s review if your paper is selected.

Submissions:
Interested faculty should submit their work for consideration to Sarah Cravens [email protected] no later than 5:00pm Central Time on Friday, August 1, 2025. Please indicate “PR New Voices Submission – 2026 Annual Meeting” in the subject line of the email.

In the body of the email, include (1) your name; (2) your title; (3) your institutional affiliation; (4) the title of your paper and an abstract of 250-500 words; (5) an indication of the status of your project (early draft stage / completed draft stage / ready for publication); (6) a statement confirming your eligibility under the criteria above.

Attach your paper to the email as either a Microsoft Word or PDF file.

For Planning Purposes:
Selected panelists will be notified in September. Panelists will be responsible for their own costs associated with participation in the panel (including registration for the conference, accommodation, travel, etc.).

Description

The workshop invites submissions from untenured law professors with papers on race and private law. All aspects of private law are encouraged including corporate law, contracts, financial law, regulation, property, torts, and empirical research in those areas in relation to issues of race. Approximately 3-4 papers will be chosen from those submitted for presentation.  A senior scholar will comment on each paper, followed by a general discussion of each paper among all participants. 

Submission Procedure

Scholars who are interested in presenting a paper should submit an abstract, summary or draft to Professor Atinuke Adediran at [email protected] on or before Friday, August 15, 2025. The cover email should state the scholar’s institution. Please title the email: “Submission-Section on Race and Private Law.”

Eligibility

Only untenured professors are eligible to submit proposals. Co-authored submissions are welcome so long as each of the authors are untenured.  Submissions may include work that has been accepted for publication so long as such work is still capable of incorporating substantive edits.  

Per AALS rules, only full-time faculty members and fellows of AALS member law schools are eligible to submit proposals to sections’ calls for proposals. All participants of the program are responsible for paying their own annual meeting registration fees and travel expenses.

An “emerging scholar” is defined as a scholar who has held a full-time academic position for seven (7) years or fewer. Each participating scholar will be assigned a senior remedies scholar as a designated reviewer who will provide written comments in advance or during the program. The participating scholar will have the opportunity to present their work at the AALS Annual Meeting and field questions and comments from the audience. 

For Interested Junior Scholars 

To participate, scholars must be full-time faculty members, including full-time visiting assistant professors or fellows, at AALS member schools. Draft papers that have been posted on scholarship networks such as SSRN, but have not yet been accepted for publication, are eligible for consideration. Feedback through this program will be most beneficial for mid-stage drafts. 

Topics may cover any area of public or private remedies law.

Please submit a detailed abstract of at least 500 words or a draft of your paper (preferred), to be considered for participation in the program no later than 11:59 PM EDT on Monday, July 28, 2025.

If your paper is selected for participation in the program, you must submit a working draft (i.e., at least 12,000 words, including footnotes) no later than Friday, December 5, 2025. This deadline is important to allow time for senior scholar review prior to the AALS Annual Meeting. The draft does not need to be completely polished or ready for law review submission. We welcome papers in earlier stages when the author can most benefit from feedback. Please be aware that selected participants must register for and attend the AALS Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, the Section does not have funding to support travel or meeting attendance.

For Senior Scholars Interested in Serving as Reviewers

If you are interested in serving as a reviewer this year, and you plan to attend the Annual Meeting, please email  [email protected] at your earliest convenience.

The Role of Emerging Technologies and Regulations on the Legal Profession

Since at least 2012, lawyers have had an express obligation to understand the risks and benefits of technology regarding their legal practice and the guidance they provide to clients. Although these obligations are not new, the expansion of generative AI, an increase in cybersecurity risks, new disclosure and management obligations on corporate clients, and the potential for algorithmic bias in employment, housing, and other critical fields has made the need for attorney competence to be greater than ever before. This program focuses on the lawyer’s role in understanding, managing, and guiding these changes in the lawyer’s own practice and in the guidance provided to clients and the courts, as well as responding to increasing regulation.

Please submit an abstract of your proposed topic to Michele Neitz at [email protected] on or before Friday, July 11, 2025 for consideration. Interested speakers should include their name and contact information.

This informal session will provide scholars (at any stage in their career) with an opportunity to present their drafts (at any stage of development) and obtain feedback from their colleagues.

We invite research, scholarship, and discussion on any topic relevant to the Section, including, but not limited to:
(1) integration of technology into legal pedagogy and assessments;
(2) preparing students to use technology effectively and ethically in their practice;
(3) legal AI literacy training for students, instructors, legal professionals, and/or law school staff and administration;
(4) the regulation of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence;
(5) using technology to improve legal information and services; and
(5) deploying technology to promote and improve access to justice.

Registration coming soon.

Scholarship and Annual Meeting subcommittee chairs contact information:
Alex Zhang ([email protected]) and Michele Neitz ([email protected]).

In addition, please consider opportunities to connect with this year’s theme: Impact. Excellence. Resilience. The Enduring Contributions of Legal Education.

Privacy, Social Media, and the World of T & E

As AI assumes more importance in the legal world and as privacy becomes an even more critical commodity, these cutting-edge developments are having an impact on the field of trusts and estates. The goal of this program is to show how these larger trends affect trusts and estates jurisprudence, pedagogy, and practice.

Proposals might address the confidentiality of estate planning, the public nature of wills and conservatorships and the private nature of trusts, the sealing of court proceedings, protection of digital assets, the Corporate Transparency Act, or the role of AI in T&E pedagogy and practice. We welcome proposals to present new scholarship, recent caselaw and statutory developments, and ideas for teaching concepts in the classroom.

There is an option for publication of papers in the ACTEC L.J. Please include in your proposal whether you are interested in that option.

Please send all proposals – and questions — to Naomi Cahn, [email protected], by June 1. Decisions will be announced by July 1.

Women remain underrepresented in influential positions in the legal academy. Visible and invisible status lines and distinctions within and outside of the academy have historically been defined by and through prisms of both discrimination and harassment. These status lines and distinctions bear directly upon career progression and one’s personal sense of safety. They create and, once brought to light, help to explain persistent inequality.

The AALS Section on Women in Legal Education (WILE) invite proposals by thought leaders to engage with the topic of harassment and bullying in the contemporary academic workplace as an open-ended question. This panel will explore harassment and bullying and the wide range of behaviors that constitute them, ranging from more readily recognizable forms of unwelcome conduct such as unwanted sexual advances, comments, gestures, and physical contact, and actions or statements that are obviously threatening, to more subtle or insidious forms of harassment and bullying, such as instances where a staff member’s helpfulness are mistakenly interpreted as interest or where a faculty member engages in alleged consensual sexual relationships with students. In so doing, the panel will employ the framework of intersectionality in analyzing varying forms and examples of harassment and bullying. The panel also may explore the role of institutional policies and practices in perpetuating harassment or bullying as well as the challenges and obstacles that status differences may create in terms of reporting and addressing these harms.

The AALS WILE welcomes submissions from law faculty, staff, and administrators at all stages of their careers. Submissions are due on or before July 15, 2025, and should be sent to [email protected]. We will let you know by August 5, 2025 if you are selected. The voices of women of color, LGBTQ+ women, women with disabilities, and other historically marginalized groups in the legal academy will be particularly important to include on this panel.