Work-in-Progress Annual Comparative Law Workshop

October 25, 2024

May 1-3, 2025

Announcement and Call for Papers

Co-Organized and Co-Hosted by

Jacqueline Ross (University of Illinois College of Law)

Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton University)

Jacques deLisle (University of Pennsylvania Law School), and

And co-sponsored by The American Society of Comparative Law

Hosting institution this year:  University of Illinois College of Law

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 University of Illinois College of Law and held in-person in Champaign-Urbana, from May 1-3, 2025.

Interested authors should submit papers to Jacqueline Ross at jeross1@illinois.edu. Please put “Comparative Law Workshop” in the subject line of your email when submitting.

Papers must be submitted by February 5, 2025. We will inform authors of our decision by March 5, 2025.

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, 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).   If the paper (or book chapter) is longer, please 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 lawyers to get together for two days 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 scholars from the host institutions. The group will be kept small enough to sit around a large table and 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.   While it may be hard to ensure your own paper is below 15,000 words, you will appreciate the word limit when it comes to reading all of the other papers for the workshop. 

Each paper will be introduced and discussed first by two commentators before opening the discussion to the other workshop participants, who are all expected to be prepared with comments on the circulated (and read) papers. The author of each paper will be given an opportunity to respond and ask questions of his or her own.   Each author whose work is featured in the workshop is expected to comment on the work of the other six authors and to participate in the discussion of their work. 

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 begins with a Thursday evening reception and dinner on May 1, runs all day Friday May 2 and ends shortly after lunch on Saturday May 3.   We expect all authors to attend the entire workshop to provide continuity in the discussions.  The Workshop is supported by the University of Illinois College of Law and the American Society of Comparative Law.   We will cover the costs of hotels and meals in Champaign-Urbana and some portion of authors’ travel costs, up to $600 per person, though with some flexibility to reimburse for more if warranted by cost and distance.