We invite all interested comparative law scholars to consider submitting a paper to the next annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop, which will be hosted by Princeton University and held as a virtual conference March 11-13, 2021.
Interested authors should submit papers to Kim Lane Scheppele at kimlane@princeton.edu. Please put “Comparative Law Workshop” in the subject line of your email when submitting. Papers must be submitted by January 10, 2021. We will inform authors of our decision by February 10, 2020. The conference will be held virtually, through Zoom.
The annual workshop is an important forum in which comparative law works in progress can be explored among colleagues in a serious and thorough manner that will be truly helpful to the respective authors. “Work in progress” means scholarship that has reached a stage at which it is substantial enough for serious discussion and critique but that has not yet appeared in print and can still be revised after the workshop, if it has already been accepted for publication. Appropriate work for the workshop includes law review articles, articles aiming for refereed journals, book chapters, and other similar genres.
We ask for only one contribution per author and also ask authors to limit their papers to 15,000 words (including notes), or, if the paper (or book chapter) is longer, to indicate which 15,000 word portion they would like to have read and discussed.
Our objective is not only to provide an opportunity for the discussion of scholarly work but also to create the opportunity for comparative legal scholars to get together for two days (perhaps extended to eliminate Zoom fatigue) devoted to talking shop, both in the sessions and outside. We hope that this will create synergy that fosters more dialogue, cooperation, and an increased sense of coherence for the discipline.
The participants in the workshop will consist of the paper authors, designated commentators, and faculty members of the host institutions. The group will be kept small enough to sit around a large table (or its Zoom equivalent), small enough to allow serious discussion. The authors will not present their papers at the workshop. The papers will be distributed well in advance and every participant is expected to have read all of them before the workshop. Each paper will be introduced and discussed first by two commentators before opening the discussion to the other workshop participants. Each of the authors selected for the workshop is expected to have read and to be prepared to discuss all of the papers. The author of each paper will be given an opportunity to respond and ask questions of his or her own. There are no plans to publish a collection of the workshop papers. Paper authors may seek publication if, and wherever, they wish. The goal of the workshop is to improve the work before publication.
The Workshop is supported by Princeton University and the American Society of Comparative Law.