The recent (and ongoing) economic upheaval in the United States and elsewhere highlights the extent to which individual well-being is connected to actions and actors beyond individual control. American legal history is marked by contestation between our society’s assumption of individual capacity and sovereign autonomy and legal and policy commitments that recognize the limits of such capacity. Efforts to protect the public have often been derided as contrary to the values of individualism and anti-paternalism within American law and society. The ideological commitment to individual capacity has underwritten certain legal determinations that fail to take into account the fragility of individual (or national) well-being, whether in the due process context or in international law.

Even where vulnerability is recognized in American law, it is often recognized as an exceptional state of affairs—bestowed upon children or the aged. Moreover, the recognition of vulnerability is often denied certain classes of persons based on race or class, as in the case of the treatment of minority juvenile offenders, or particular victims of domestic violence. Can vulnerability be understood as the ordinary state of affairs? Can humanistic inquiries aid in the law’s capacity to take vulnerability (both individual and global) seriously in a society committed to the freedom and autonomy of the individual? This panel will take up these issues in wide-ranging areas, included, but not limited to, race, class, age, ethnicity, geography, affectional orientation, disability, foreign affairs, and national security. Methodological approaches include, but are not limited to, historical, philosophical, literary, theological, and critical.

This program will explore these issues with several invited panelists and panelists who are accepted through this call.

To be considered as a panelist, please submit a statement of interest by Friday, March 30, 2012, including a description (2-3 paragraphs are sufficient) of your presentation that will address themes highlighted in the above description, and the methodology through which you advance such themes. Please also submit an updated curriculum vitae.

Panelists will be selected by April 16, 2012. The Section hopes to have these papers published as part of an online mini-symposium sponsored by a law review, either in print or online.

All panelists will be responsible for paying their annual meeting registration fee and travel expenses. Full-time faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid law schools are eligible to submit papers. Foreign, visiting (and not full-time on a different faculty) and adjunct faculty members, graduate students, and fellows are not eligible to submit.

Any inquiries about the Call for Panelists should be submitted to Professor Charlton Copeland, University of Miami Law School, via electronic mail at ccopeland@law.miami.edu.

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This workshop explores from a cross-cultural perspective how privatization impacts contemporary feminist and social justice approaches to public responsibility. Feminisms have long problematized divisions between the private and the political, partly in reaction to the unprecedented privatization of state responsibilities and public welfare over the past 30 years. Recent critical legal scholarship on vulnerability, state negligence, and resilience can complicate and deepen our understanding of the problems generated by privatization in the 21st century.

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Robotics seems increasingly likely to become a transformative technology. This conference will build on existing scholarship exploring the role of robotics to examine how the increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield disrupts existing legal regimes or requires rethinking of various policy issues.

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The Forum’s objective is to encourage the work of young scholars by providing experience in the pursuit of scholarship and the nature of the scholarly exchange. Meetings are held each spring, alternating between Yale, Stanford, and Harvard.

Paper submissions for the Forum should be sent to Ms. Kaitlin Burroughs at Harvard Law School (1525 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138). Electronic submissions should be sent to kburroughs[at]law.harvard.edu. The deadline for submission is February 15, 2012. Please note on the cover letter which topic your paper falls under.

Inquiries concerning the Forum should be sent to Adriaan Lanni (adlanni[at]law.harvard.edu) or Gabriella Blum (gblum[at]law.harvard.edu) at Harvard Law School, Joseph Bankman at Stanford Law School (jbankman[at]stanford.edu), or Ian Ayres at Yale Law School (ian.ayres[at]yale.edu)

The focus of this year’s session will be public law and the humanities. The topics to be addressed are:
Administrative Law
Constitutional Law
Criminal Law
Employment Law, Social Welfare Policy, and Anti-Discrimination Law
Environmental Law
Family Law
Jurisprudence and Philosophy
Law and Humanities (including Law and Literature, Critical Legal Studies, and Gender Studies)
Legal History
Public International Law
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In addition, the tax section of the meeting has a call for papers deadline of Nov. 29, 2011.

The sixth annual John F. Scarpa Conference on Law, Politics, and Culture will celebrate and explore the achievements of John M. Finnis.For over 40 years, Finnis has pioneered the development of a new classical theory of natural law and a systematic philosophical explanation of human life that offers an integrated account of personal identity, practical reason, morality, political community, and law. The core of Finnis’s theory, articulated in his pathbreaking work Natural Law and Natural Rights (1981), has profoundly influenced later work in the philosophy of law and practical reason, while his contributions to the ethical debates surrounding nuclear deterrence, abortion, and sexuality have been a powerful and controversial exposition of the practical implications of his theory of natural law and natural rights. In 2011 Oxford University Press published a new edition of Natural Law and Natural Rights and The Collected Essays of John Finnis in five volumes.

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The Cummins Grant provides a stipend of $10,000 to support short-term historical research using the Special Collections Department at GW’s Jacob Burns Law Library, which is noted for its continental historical legal collections, especially its French collection, with strengths in Roman and canon law, church-state relations, international law, and many incunabula holdings.The grant is awarded to one doctoral, LL.M., or S.J.D. candidate, postdoctoral researcher, faculty member, or independent scholar. The successful candidate may come from a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to, law, history, religion, philosophy, or bibliography.

The application deadline is Nov. 1, 2011. mw

The Kentucky Law Journal is seeking submissions that draw on continental philosophy to analyze cases, the legal system, or legal scholarship. Submissions are due by January 10, 2011. Articles can be submitted electronically to kljoeditors@kentuckylawjournal.org or by hard copy to

Online Content Manager
Kentucky Law Journal
University of Kentucky College of Law
Lexington, KY 40506-0048
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• “Migration, Law, and the Image: Beyond the Veil of Ignorance”
• “Legal Pornology”
• “Visualizing Legal Scholarship”
• “Law in the Age of the Digital Baroque”
• “Visual Literacy for Lawyers.”

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