Call for Papers: 36th annual AALS Scholarly Papers Competition

To encourage and recognize excellent legal scholarship and to broaden participation by junior faculty in the Annual Meeting program, the AALS is sponsoring a call for papers for the 36th annual AALS Scholarly Papers Competition. Those who will have been full-time law teachers at an AALS member or fee-paid school for five years or less on July 1, 2020, including any time spent as a Visiting Associate Professor or law fellow, are invited to submit a paper on a topic related to or concerning law. A committee of established scholars will review the submitted papers with the authors’ identities concealed.

The competition winner will be recognized at the 2021 AALS Annual Meeting

Deadline

An electronic version of the manuscript and a cover letter (described below) should be emailed to AALS Scholarly Papers no later than August 6, 2020, 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Anonymity

The manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter with the author’s name and contact information. The manuscript itself, including title page and footnotes, should not contain any references that identify the author or the author’s school. The submitting author is responsible for redacting self-identifying text or footnotes. Additionally, the manuscript should not contain any information identifying a specific journal or law review where the manuscript may have been selected for publication.

Form & Length

Each submission should be prepared using Microsoft Word. There is a maximum word limit of 30,000 words (inclusive of footnotes) for the submitted manuscripts. The manuscript should be double-spaced in 12-point (or larger) type with ample (at least 1″) margins on all sides. Footnotes should be 10-point or larger, single-spaced, and preferably on the same page as the referenced text. Papers that do not comply with the above formatting requirements cannot be accepted if they cannot be corrected before the submission deadline.

Eligibility

Faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid schools, including visiting faculty whose “home” school is also an AALS member or fee-paid school are eligible. Fellows, VAPs, and adjuncts are not eligible, nor are visiting faculty whose “home” school is not a member or fee-paid school. The competition is open to those who have been full-time law teachers for five years or less as of July 1, 2020 (for these purposes, one is considered a full-time faculty member while officially “on leave” from the law school). Time spent as a visiting faculty member (VAP) or law fellow will be counted toward the five-year maximum, but time away on family or medical leave will not be included. Co-authored papers are eligible for consideration, but each of the co-authors must meet the eligibility criteria established above. Authors are limited to one submission each. A co-authored submission is treated as an individual submission by each author, and precludes additional submissions by either author. AALS Scholarly Papers Competition winners are not eligible to compete again, though past Honorable Mention recipients are eligible.

Papers are expected to reflect original research. Papers are not eligible for consideration if they will have been published before February 2021. However, inclusion of a version of the paper on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) or similar pre-publication resource does not count as “publication” for purposes of this competition. Submitted papers, whether or not selected for recognition, may be subsequently published as arranged by the authors. Papers may have been revised on the basis of review by colleagues.

Statement of Compliance

The cover letter accompanying each submission should include a statement verifying:

1. The author holds a faculty appointment at a member or fee-paid school;
2. The author has been engaged in full-time teaching for five years or less as of July 1, 2020; please indicate years taught to verify eligibility, including any years spent as a VAP or law fellow;
3. All information identifying the author, author’s school, or publication commitment has been removed from the manuscript;
4. The paper has not been previously published and is not committed for publication prior to February 2021; and
5. The author agrees to notify the AALS if the submitted paper will be published before February 2021.

Each author is to indicate up to four subject categories from the list below that best fit the paper. In the event that none of the listed categories captures the essence of the paper, the author should write in one topic under “other.”

Subject Categories

Administrative Law; Admiralty; Agency/Partnership; Agricultural Law; Alternative Dispute Resolution; Animal Law; Antitrust; Arts and Literature; Aviation and Space Law; Bank and Finance; Bankruptcy and Creditor’s Rights; Bioethics; Civil Procedure; Civil Rights; Commercial Law; Communications Law; Community Property; Comparative Law; Computer and Internet Law; Conflict of Laws; Constitutional Law; Consumer Law; Contracts; Corporations; Courts; Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure; Critical Legal Theory; Disability Law; Dispute Resolution; Domestic Relations; Economics, Law and; Education Law; Elder Law; Election Law; Employment Practice; Energy and Utilities; Entertainment Law; Environmental Law; Estate Planning and Probate; Evidence; Family Law; Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure; Foreign Relations; Gender Law; Health Law and Policy; Housing Law; Human Rights Law; Immigration Law; Insurance Law; Intellectual Property; International Law – Private; International Law – Public; Jurisprudence; Juveniles; Labor; Law Enforcement and Corrections; Legal Analysis and Writing; Legal Education; Legal History; Legal Profession; Legislation; Local Government; Mergers and Acquisitions; Military Law; National Security Law; Native American Law; Natural Resources Law; Nonprofit Organizations;Other; Organizations; Poverty Law; Products Liability; Professional Responsibility; Property Law; Race and the Law; Real Estate Transactions; Religion, Law and; Remedies; Science, Law and; Securities; Sexuality and the Law; Social Justice; Social Sciences, Law and; Society, Law and; State and Local Government Law; Taxation – Federal; Taxation – State & Local; Technology, Law and; Terrorism; Torts; Trade; Trial and Appellate Advocacy; Trusts and Estates; Workers’ Comp