CFP: The Global Family Law International Research Collaboration (GFL-IRC-13)

Call for Papers: **Friday, October 4, 2024 Deadline**

The Global Family Law International Research Collaboration  (GFL-IRC-13)

The GFL-IRC-13 seeks submissions for the 2025 Law & Society Annual Meeting

May 22-25, 2025 in Chicago, Il, at the Hyatt Regency

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to submit a proposal to participate in programming sponsored by the Global Family Law - International Research Collaboration (“IRC-13”) at the 2025 Law & Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, USA. The 2025 conference will be held in person at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, with no option for virtual participation. More details on the conference theme, registration, and travel can be found at: https://www.lawandsociety.org.

The Global Family Law IRC-13 brings together law and society scholars from around the globe across a range of fields. We have included a description of the IRC at the end of this call for submissions.

Content of IRC-13 Proposals

IRC-13 welcomes legal and interdisciplinary paper proposals from scholars worldwide, particularly those relating to the 2025 LSA conference theme. We encourage applications from scholars at all career levels, including junior scholars and graduate students – and those new to family law.

The IRC-13 Planning Committee will assemble three panels of up to five presenters based on subject matter and composition of panel members (seeking diversity in terms of presenters, geographical regions, and professional level).  We expect one of the three panels to feature, in part, future chapter authors of a new book edited by Melissa L. Breger, forthcoming in 2027, which will be a sequel to “Exploring Norms and Family Laws Across the Globe” (Lexington Books, 2022) https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793618351.

Each paper presentation should run approximately 10-15 minutes and allow ample time for discussion.  Each presenter must submit a solid draft of the paper to their chair, discussants, and fellow panelists by the first week of April 2025.

The 2025 LSA conference will mark the IRC-13’s fifth year!  In 2021, our inaugural year, family law scholars presented on three distinct panels on wide-ranging topics, such as child rights, culture, parenting, human rights, and property rights within the family structure. In 2022 (Lisbon), we created four distinct panels exploring the regulation of intimate relationships, juvenile rights, and inter-legal, holistic, and cross-cultural family law issues. In 2023 (San Juan), we enjoyed an engaging roundtable and two panels covering topics such as tri-parent custody, family law in various countries within Africa, and gamete donation.  In 2024 (Denver), we delved into topics such as surrogacy, religious marriage in India, and safe haven laws.  

Deadlines & Process for Submitting IRC-13 Proposals:

If you would like to present a paper as part of an IRC-13 panel, please send an email to Melissa Breger, [email protected], no later than Friday, October 4, 2024, with the following information:

• Your paper’s title;
• An abstract or summary of your paper (between 1000-2000 characters);
• Your name, professional title, and institutional affiliation; and
• Number of years you have been working in family law, including post-graduate work.

Additional Requirements for GFL-IRC-13 Participation:

As a condition of participating as part of an IRC-13 program, we ask that you agree to serve as a  discussant for another IRC-13 panel. Please note that LSA rules limit each participant to a single conference appearance as a paper panelist or roundtable participant.  (Note that you can have unlimited appearances as a chair, discussant, or reader on an Author-Meets-Reader.) 

You are not required to be a LSA member to attend the conference, but you will need to create a free LSA profile, register, and pay a conference fee to LSA.

The Planning Committee will read and evaluate all proposals.  If your proposal is accepted, you must register to participate in the 2025 LSA conference by the October 2024 LSA registration deadline.

We hope you will join us for the 2025 IRC-13 to discuss the family law research and scholarship in which we are all engaged.

Many thanks,

The 2024-25 IRC-13 Planning Committee

Professor Melissa Breger – Albany Law School

Professor Deseriee Kennedy – Touro University Law Center

Professor Mark Henaghan-  University of Auckland

 

Professor Samia Bona -University of London

 

Professor Michael Adeleke - Obafemi Awolowo University

 

Dr. So Young Park-  University of Missouri

 

 

IRC 13- Global Perspectives on Family Law in Context is described as follows: 

The aim of this IRC is to bring together scholars from around the world who specialize or research in the field of family law from a variety of disciplines. The scholars strive to answer questions such as: What can we learn when we examine, compare, and contrast socio-legal aspects of families across the globe?  What can we learn about the law and its interrelations with society when we study how families are formed, dissolved, and altered across nations around the globe? The IRC brings together some of the world’s leading family law scholars, as well as bright, emerging scholars, all of whom are endeavoring to answer the above questions and beyond. The IRC has a shared interest in the concept of social norms, which weave in economic and psychological concepts and are defined as “social attitudes of approval and disapproval, specifying what ought to be done and what ought not to be done.” The idea that law reflects normative social attitudes and then social attitudes reflect law is a common theoretical thread.