Constitutional Law Prof Blog

Call for Papers: ACS Con Law Scholars Forum

The American Constitution Society, Barry University Law School Student Chapter, and Texas A&M University School of Law are soliciting paper proposals for the Third Annual Constitutional Law Scholars Forum, March 2, 2018, in Orlando.

The deadline is December 1, 2017. Send a short (300 word) abstract and short (150 word) bio to Prof. Eang Ngov, engov.barry.edu, with "Constitutional Law Scholars Forum" in the subject line.

Here's the call. Prof. Ngov and Prof. Meg Penrose, [email protected], are the organizers.

Paper Call: ACS Junior Scholars Public Law Workshop

The American Constitution Society is calling for papers for a workshop on public law on January 4, 2018, at the 2018 AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Here's the call.

This is an excellent opportunity. The ACS Board of Academic Advisors will select 10 papers, and each author will have a chance to discuss her or his work with two experienced scholars.

The deadline is October 18, 2017; submissions should be works that have not been published as of January 1, 2018. Tenure-track and tenured faculty, or faculty with similar status, who have been full-time law teachers for 10 years or less as of December 31, 2017, are eligible.

Inquiries? Send to [email protected].

Call for Papers: ACS Junior Scholars Public Law Workshop

The American Constitution Society for Law & Policy is accepting paper proposals for a workshop on public law on January 4, 2018, at the 2018 AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego.

A committee of ACS's Board of Academic Advisors will select 10 papers. Selected authors will present his or her paper and discuss it with two experienced scholars.

Papers can be in any field related to public law. Tenure-track and tenured faculty, or faculty with similar status, who have been full-time law teachers for 10 years or less as of December 31, 2017, are eligible. (Co-authored submissions are permissible, but each coauthor must qualify.)

Please send proposals to [email protected] on or before October 18, 2017.

Check out the call on the ACS web-site for more information.

Call for Papers for Younger Scholars Forum in Comparative Law

The International Academy of Comparative Law invites younger scholars (no more than ten years of tenure-track faculty experience) to participate in the first-ever Younger Scholars Forum in Comparative Law, on Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Fukuoka, Japan.

Submit an abstract between 150 and 500 words to the appropriate moderator of one of eight workshops or the Director of the Speakers' Corner by September 15, 2017.

The program includes workshops on the Separation of Powers and its Challenges in Comparative Perspectives; Populism and Comparative Approaches to Democratic Theory; Comparative Public and Private Law Responses to Religious Diversity; Methodological Approaches to Comparative Constitutional Law; and more.

Check out the detailed call for papers for more information and contacts.

CFP: National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars

Here's the announcement:

 

National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars

The Rehnquist Center is pleased to announce the inaugural National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars. The conference will be held at the Westward Look Resort in Tucson, Arizona, on March 16-17, 2018. Its goal is to create a vibrant and useful forum for constitutional scholars to gather and exchange ideas each year.

Adrian Vermeule will deliver a keynote address. Distinguished commentators for 2018 include:

• Jamal Greene
• Aziz Huq
• Pamela Karlan
• Frank Michelman
• Cristina Rodriguez
• Reva Siegel
• Robin West

All constitutional law scholars are invited to attend. Those wishing to present a paper for discussion should submit a 1- to 2-page abstract by September 15, 2017. All constitutional law topics are welcome, and both emerging and established scholars are strongly encouraged to submit. Selected authors will be notified by October 15, 2017. Selected papers will be presented in small panel sessions, organized by subject, with commentary by a distinguished senior scholar.

Please send all submissions or related questions to Andrew Coan ([email protected]). For logistical questions or to register for the conference, please contact Bernadette Wilkinson ([email protected]). The Rehnquist Center will provide meals for all registered conference participants. Participants must cover travel and lodging costs. Hotel information will be provided as the date approaches.

Conference Organizers :
Andrew Coan, Arizona; David Schwartz, Wisconsin; Brad Snyder, Georgetown

The Rehnquist Center

The William H. Rehnquist Center on the Constitutional Structures of Government was established in 2006 at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. The non-partisan center honors the legacy of Chief Justice Rehnquist by encouraging public understanding of the structural constitutional themes that were integral to his jurisprudence: the separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government, the balance of powers between the federal and state governments, and among sovereigns more generally, and judicial independence.

Daily Read: On the 50th Anniversary of Loving, A Look at its Portrayal in Film

Professor Ruthann Robson, City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law

 In Loving v. Virginia, decided June 12, 1967, the United States Supreme Court unanimously held that the Virginia statute criminalizing marriage between White and (most)non-White persons violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.  The case has become an iconic one, not only because it explicitly states that the Virginia law was "obviously an endorsement of the doctrine of White Supremacy," but also because it identifies the "freedom to marry" as "one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men." 

Creighton Law Review hosted a symposium for the 50th anniversary of the case and the issue is just published.

Among the terrific articles is one that considers the Hollywood film, released last year, as well as the previous documentary.  In the important contribution Filmic Contributions to the Long Arc of the Law: Loving and the Narrative Individualization of Systemic Injustice, Alanna Doherty argues that the film, and to a lesser extent the documentary "repackages the Lovings’ historic civil rights struggle against wider systemic oppression as a personal victory won by triumphant individuals through the power of love."  This individualization through narrative, she argues, obscures the collective and civil rights struggle that is the ground of the action the film portrays. Likewise, the "White Supremacy" of the state is attributed to a few rogue individuals. Doherty argues that such individualization is not only limited, but also accounts for the post-Loving developments in equality doctrine regarding affirmative action:

Both Loving (the film) and Fisher [v. University of Texas at Austin] (the case) present their stories of individualized racial harm at the cost of avoiding meaningful recognition of systemic injustice. While in Loving this may seem positive due to the nature of the decision, and although in Fisher the court ultimately upheld the admissions policy, harmful ideological work is still being done to our socio-legal consciousness. In Fisher, the Court set injurious legal precedent in how it evaluates affirmative action programs—under intense scrutiny and with such little deference that fewer, if any, will pass constitutional muster. And because law is an embodiment of social practices interacting with cultural conceptions in noetic space, a trend in cinematic and legal narratives to shirk responsibility for holding oppressive institutions accountable only furthers a reciprocity with cultural ideology that moves the law away from helping those most vulnerable under it.

[footnotes omitted].

And yet, even as Loving (the film) is subject to critique as being limited, sentimental, and nostalgic, Doherty ultimately contends that the film has legal relevance given our fraught political landscape:

perhaps the cultural and legal imagining that needs to be done in the noetic space of 2017 is one grounded in the inspiring recognition of triumphant small-scale love. Maybe what Loving truly contributes to such a tumultuous cultural moment is the notion that not only must we continue to commit to fights we should not have to fight, but that if we want to take care of each other even when the law fails us, we must decide to keep loving.

 

 

Examining President Trump's First 100 Days

Check out the Illinois Law Review's outstanding, mile-wide and mile-deep on-line symposium Examining Trump's First 100 Days in Office: His Plan, Promises, and Pursuit of Making America Great Again.

A very impressive group of thirty-one authors write on topics ranging from governance issues (the judiciary, federalism, administrative law) to every hot area of domestic and foreign policy.

ACS Symposium on The Future of the U.S. Constitution

Check out the ACSblog on-line symposium here.

Call for Papers: European Junior Faculty Forum

The WZB Berlin Social Science Center, the European University Institute, and the London School for Economics and Political Science invite submissions for the Inaugural Annual European Junior Faculty Forum for Public Law and Jurisprudence, to be held at WZB Berlin Social Science Center on June 28 and 29, 2017.

Authors may be invited to publish in Global Constitutionalism.

Check out the web-site and call for papers. Submission deadline--including a CV, abstract, and draft article--is April 15, 2017.

Call for Papers: Separation of Powers: A Global Constitutional Dialogue

Check out the call for papers for an exciting Symposium on The Separation of Powers: A Global Constitutional Dialogue on May 22, 2017, at the University of Milan.

The topic is inspired by Professor Giovanni Bognetti's (U. Milan) book, La Separazione dei Poteri.

The conveners are Prof. Richard Albert (Boston College), Dr. Antonia Baraggia (U. Milan), Prof. Cristina Fasone (U. Rome), and Prof. Luca Pietro Vanoni (U. Milan).

The Call for Papers is here; proposals are due by January 15, 2017, to [email protected]. The full-day Symposium will be held entirely in English.

CFP: Loving v Virginia Symposium

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

50 YEARS OF LOVING:

SEEKING JUSTICE THROUGH LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS

Symposium, March 23-24, 2017

Creighton School of Law, Omaha, Nebraska

The Creighton Law Review, Creighton’s 2040 Initiative, and the Werner Institute invite you to contribute to the Law Review’s June 2017 issue and/or to attend the 50 Years of Loving symposium hosted by the 2040 Initiative and the Werner Institute at the Creighton School of Law. The symposium will explore how the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Loving v. Virginia has influenced U.S society institutionally, demographically, and relationally.

Race in the United States has historically been socially constructed through interlocking cultural narratives, including law, and cultural practice, including institutions. Racism is a social system enacted and perpetuated by the interactions and relationships of individual people. Exploring the disruptive effects of the interracial “mixing” protected by Loving v. Virginia offers an opportunity to deepen understanding of systemic racism and to develop systems-based strategies for continuing the struggle for social justice. At a time when the demographics of the U.S. are shifting away from a white majority, deconstructing systemic racism is an essential project.

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), ended legal prohibitions against interracial marriage in the U.S. By eliminating of longstanding legal sanctions against “miscegenation,” Loving disrupted the pre-existing social system. Loving rejected racial separation and hierarchy and endorsed relationships across previously uncrossable racial lines. Since Loving, the number of interracial marriages has grown significantly: “Nearly 15 percent, or one in seven, of all new marriages in 2008 were between people of different races or ethnicities.”*

The effects of these marriages extend beyond those who are themselves married. “[M]ore than a third of all adults surveyed reported having a family member whose spouse is of a different race or ethnicity – up from less than a quarter in 2005.”* Since Loving, the proportion of the U.S. population with multiple racial heritages has grown dramatically. Moreover, the children born as a result of Loving also have disrupted the social construction of race itself, with more people self-identifying as of more than one race, biracial, multiracial, or mixed.

The Law Review seeks submissions exploring these issues – to range from reflections (up to 1000 words) and essays (approximately 2500-3000 words) to articles (no more than 7000 words, not including references and footnotes). Draft abstracts of up to one page and queries may be addressed to Research Editor Sean Nakamoto at [email protected] no later than January 15, 2017. Final submissions will be March 20, 2017. There will be an opportunity at the symposium for selected authors to discuss their submissions at the 50 Years of Loving symposium at Creighton University in March, 2017.**

Authors are also encouraged to join the moderated online discussion on the effects of the Loving decision on our society hosted by the 2040 Initiative and ADRHub at http://blogs.creighton.edu/creighton2040/50-years-of-loving-moderated-online-discussion. Selected excerpts from this discussion will also be featured in the June 2017 Creighton Law Review edition. Discussion entries should respond to the following question: From the perspective of your academic discipline or professional institution, what are the questions, issues, or tensions that have arisen out of 50 Years of Loving?

 

*john a. powell, Racing to Justice (2012)

** Contact Amanda Guidero at AmandaGuidero  AT  creighton.edu for more information on the symposium and opportunities to present your work.

Call for Papers: Symposium on the Constitution of Canada

Scuola Sant' Anna and the STALS (Sant' Anna Legal Studies) Project are hosting a symposium on The Constitution of Canada: History, Evolution, Influence and Reform in Pisa, Italy, on May 24, 2017. Hosts are calling for papers:

Submissions are invited from scholars at all levels--from senior scholars to doctoral students--on one or more of the following subjects. We invite participants to take any methodological approach they wish, including comparative, doctrinal, empirical, historical and/or theoretical perspectives.

1.    The History and Evolution of the Constitution of Canada

2.    The Influence Abroad of the Constitution of Canada

3.    Canada's "Invisible" Constitution

4.    Reforming Canada's Constitution: Perspectives from Abroad

500-word abstracts are due by December 15, 2016, to [email protected]. The full call is here.

You can direct questions to Giuseppe Martinico, at [email protected].

CFP: ACS Junior Scholars Workshop at AALS

American Constitution Society

Junior Scholars Public Law Workshop

(to be held at AALS Meeting January 2017)

 

deadline for submission: 11:59 p.m. on October 15, 2016 

 

 

from the call:

 

To further its mission of promoting the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and the fundamental values it expresses-- individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law—the American Constitution for Law & Policy (ACS) is pleased to announce a call for papers for a workshop on public law to be held the afternoon of January 5, 2017 at the 2017 AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco. A committee composed of members of ACS’s Board of Academic Advisors will select 10 papers and each selected author will have the opportunity to discuss his/her paper in depth with two experienced scholars.

Papers can be in any field related to public law, including but not limited to: constitutional law, administrative law, antidiscrimination law, criminal law, environmental law, family law, federal courts, financial regulation, public international law, social welfare law, and workplace law.

More submission details at the ACS website here.

CFP: Feminist Legal Theory at Law and Society in Mexico City

The Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network of Law & Society is a great group and Law & Society is always terrific.  Here's the call:

 

Call for Papers – Friday September 16^th Deadline

The Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network

Seeks submissions for the

Law and Society Association Annual Meeting

Mexico City, Mexico, at the Sheraton Maria Isabel, June 20 – 23, 2017

Dear friends and colleagues,

We invite you to participate in the panels sponsored by the Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network at the Law and Society Annual Meeting in 2017. The Feminist Legal Theory CRN seeks to bring together law and society scholars across a range of fields who are interested in feminist legal theory. Information about the Law and Society meeting is available at http://www.lawandsociety.org.

This year’s meeting is unique in that it brings us to the Global South, and invites us to explore the theme Walls, Borders, and Bridges: Law and Society in an Inter-Connected World. We are especially interested in proposals that explore the application of feminist legal theory to this theme, broadly construed. This might include papers that explore feminist legal theory in comparative or transnational contexts, as well as in relation to the impacts of globalism and other intersections within particular locations, relationships, institutions, and identities. We are also interested in papers that will permit us to collaborate with other CRNs, such as the Critical Research on Race and the Law CRN, and welcome multidisciplinary proposals.

Our goal is to stimulate focused discussion of papers on which scholars are currently working. Thus, while you may submit papers that are closer to publication, we are particularly eager to receive proposals for works-in-progress that are at an earlier stage and will benefit from the discussion that the panels will provide.

The Planning Committee will assign individual papers to panels based on subject. Panels will use the LSA format, which requires four papers. We will also assign a chair, and one or two commentators/discussants for each panel, to provide feedback on the papers and promote discussion. For panels with two commentators/discussants, one may be asked to also chair.

As a condition of participating as a panelist, you must also agree to serve as a chair and/or commentator/discussant for another panel or participant. We will of course take into account expertise and topic preferences to the degree possible.

The duties of chairs are to organize the panel logistically; including registering it online with the LSA, and moderating the panel. Chairs will develop a 100-250 word description for the session and submit the session proposal to LSA before their anticipated deadline of October 19. This will ensure that each panelist can submit their proposal, using the panel number assigned.

The duties of commentator/discussants are to read the papers assigned to them and to prepare a short commentary about the papers that discusses them individually and (to the extent relevant) collectively, identifying ways that they relate to one another.

If you would like to present a paper as part of a CRN panel, please email:

• An 1000 word abstract or summary,
• Your name and a title, and
• A list of your areas of interest and expertise within feminist legal theory

to the CRN Planning Committee at [email protected]. (Please do not send submissions to individual committee members.)

Note that LSA is imposing a requirement that your summary be at least 1,000 words long. Although a shorter summary will suffice for our purposes, you will be required to upload a 1,000 word summary in advance of LSA’s anticipated deadline of October 19. If you are already planning a LSA session with at least four panelists (and papers) that you would like to see included in the Feminist Legal Theory CRN, please let the Committee know.

In addition to these panels, we may try to use some of the other formats that the LSA provides: the “author meets readers” format, salon, or roundtable discussion. If you have an idea that you think would work well in one of these formats, please let us know. Please note that for roundtables, organizers are now required to provide a 500-word summary of the topic and the contributions they expect the proposed participants to make. Please also note that LSA rules limit you to participating only once as a paper panelist or roundtable participant.

Please submit all proposals by Friday, September 16 to the email provided above. This will permit us to organize panels and submit them prior to the LSA’s anticipated deadline of October 19. In the past, we have accommodated as many panelists as possible, but have been unable to accept all proposals. If we are unable to accept your proposal for the CRN, we will notify you by early October so that you can submit an independent proposal to LSA.

We hope you’ll join us in Mexico City to share and discuss the scholarship in which we are all engaged and connect with others doing work on feminist legal theory.

Best,

2017 LSA Feminist Legal Theory CRN Planning Committee

Aziza Ahmed & Elizabeth MacDowell (co-chairs)

 

ACS Calls for Papers at Junior Scholars Public Law Workshop at AALS

This year the American Constitution Society is doing something new at the AALS annual meeting in San Francisco: a public law workshop for junior-ish scholars (legal academics with 10 years or less in full-time teaching).

The announcement explains: "A committee composed of members of ACS’s Board of Academic Advisors will select 10 papers and each selected author will have the opportunity to discuss his/her paper in depth with two experienced scholars, from a group that includes Erwin Chemerinsky, Pamela Karlan, Bill Marshall, Reva Siegel, Mark Tushnet, and Adam Winkler."

It's the afternoon of January 5th in San Francisco. Submissions are due October 15th. More information is available here.

Loyola's Colloquium 2016

Loyola University Chicago just announced the dates for its very popular--and very good--annual Constitutional Law Colloquium: November 4 and 5, 2016. Mark your calendars! Click here for more info.

Symposium: Does Quebec Need a Written Constitution?

Check out this symposium on March 31, 2016, at Yale:  Does Quebec Need a Written Constitution? Organizers have assembled a terrific line-up, with a key-note by Jean Charest, 29th Premier of Quebec (2003-2012).

Symposium on Con Law and Food, Drug, Medical Device Regulation

The Food and Drug Law Institute and Georgetown's O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law are co-sponsoring a symposium on Constitutional Challenges to the Regulation of Food, Drugs, Medical Devices, Cosmetics, and Tobacco Products on Friday, October 30, 2015, at Georgetown University Law Center.

Abstracts are due June 1, 2015.

Click here for the announcement and more information.

Newsweek on Civil Gideon

Newsweek reports that two New York City council members have proposed a bill to guarantee low-income tenants a right to an attorney in eviction proceedings. The story put the bill in the larger context of the civil-right-to-counsel movement, which we've mentioned most recently here.

The story also references a recent forum hosted by the Impact Center for Public Interest Law at New York Law School (forum flyer is here), and the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel.

Barry University Con Law Forum

The student chapter of the American Constitution Society at Barry University School of Law (Orlando) will host its First Annual Constitutional Law Scholars Forum on Friday, March 20, 2015. Here's the formal announcement..

The hosts invite scholarly proposals on constitutional law at any stage of pre-publication development, from an early idea to editing. Hosts also invite proposals on innovative approaches to teaching con law.

Proposals are due by January 15, 2015, to Ms. Fran Ruhl, Program Administrator, at [email protected], with "Constitutional Law Scholars Forum" in the subject line.