Wednesday, February 10, 2016

CFP: Law in the History of Capitalism

[We're moving this post up because the deadline is fast approaching.]

Law in the History of Capitalism, June 27-28, 2016, American Bar Foundation and University of Chicago Law School, 750 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago IL 60611.  Deadline for applications:  February 15, 2016

In recent years, there has been an explosion of new scholarship on the historical relationship between law and capitalism.  This new literature has examined a variety of topics including the connection between slavery and capitalism, new social and cultural perspectives on economic and business histories, and the role of the state in facilitating and frustrating economic development.  This infusion of interdisciplinary scholarship creates an opportunity for new work that puts law, legal institutions, and legal processes at the center of capitalist transformations.

The aim of this conference is to provide junior scholars with a venue to share their unpublished research and to connect with senior scholars in the field.  We thus invite junior scholars to submit proposals that offer original analyses of law in the history of capitalism.  Our goal is to host a conference with a variety of papers that range chronologically, geographically, and across disciplines.  The conference will be held at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago, Illinois, from June 27-28, 2016.

The “Law in the History of Capitalism” conference is co-sponsored by the American Bar Foundation, the American Society for Legal History, the University of Chicago Law School, the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, the University of Illinois College of Law, the University of Michigan Law School, the University of Minnesota Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Interested participants should submit a 300-word paper proposal and a cv of no more than 3 pages through the conference website.  Questions should be addressed to Erin Watt at ewatt@abfn.org.  All proposals are due by February 15, 2016.  Applicants will be notified by email no later than March 30, 2016, whether their proposals have been accepted.  No previously published work will be accepted, as the conference is designed to provide a forum for productive and supportive discussion of works in progress.

Accepted participants will be required to submit a full paper of no more than 10,000 words by May 15, 2016.  Papers will be pre-circulated on a password-protected website and read by all participants.  Modest travel and accommodations support will be provided for presenters.  For further information, see the conference website.