Call for Scholarly Papers

Those who will have been full-time law teachers at an AALS member or fee-paid school for five years or fewer on July 1, 2008 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.

Todd Rakoff ( Harvard University ), a member of the AALS Executive Committee, will serve as chair of the review committee.  The other members of the committee include: Kimberlé W. Crenshaw (University of California, Los Angeles); Craig W. Dallon (Creighton University); John C. Eastman (Chapman University); Steven H. Hobbs (The University of Alabama); Erik Luna (University of Utah); Anne Joseph O'Connell (University of California, Berkeley), 2008 Winner; and Jeffrey Stempel (University of Nevada, Las Vegas). Papers that make a substantial contribution to legal literature may be selected for distribution and oral presentation at a special program to be held at the AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego , January 2009. Authors of the presented papers will also be recognized at the Annual Meeting Luncheon. The selection committee must determine that a paper is of sufficient quality to deserve this special recognition, and the AALS is not obligated to select any paper.

Deadline: To be considered in the competition eight hard copies of the manuscript must be postmarked no later than August 15, 2008 and sent to: Call for Scholarly Papers, Association of American Law Schools, 1201 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036-2717. Also, an electronic version must be emailed to scholarlypapers@aals.org no later than August 15, 2008.

Anonymity: The manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter with the author’s name, contact information and statement if compliance described below. The manuscript itself, including title page and footnotes, must not contain any references that identify the author or the author’s school. The submitting author is responsible for taking any steps necessary to redact self-identifying text or footnotes.

Form and Length: The manuscript must be typed, double-spaced, on 8 1/2" by 11" paper in 12-point (or larger) type with ample (at least 1") margins on all sides and must have sequential page numbers on each page of the submitted article. Footnotes should be 10-point or larger, single-spaced, and preferably on the same page as the referenced text. Each submission must be prepared using either Microsoft Word or otherwise submitted in rich text format. Submissions are limited to articles, essays and book chapters. There is a maximum word limit of 35,000 (inclusive of footnotes) for the submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts will not be returned.

Eligibility: Faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid schools are eligible to submit papers. The Call is open to those who have been full-time law teachers for five years or fewer as of July 1, 2008. (For these purposes, one is considered a full-time faculty member while officially “on leave” from the law school.) Co-authored papers are eligible for consideration, but each of the co-authors must meet the eligibility criteria established above. No one who has won the AALS Scholarly Papers Competition is eligible to compete again. Honorable Mention recipients are eligible to enter again. Professors are also restricted to submitting only one paper in the Scholarly Paper Competition.

Papers are expected to reflect original research or major developments in previously reported research. Papers are not eligible for consideration if they will have been published before February 2009. However, inclusion of a version of the paper on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) or similar pre-publication resources 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 must 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 fewer as of July 1, 2008; 3) all information identifying the author or author’s school has been removed from the manuscript; 4) the paper has not been previously published and is not committed for publication prior to February 2009; 5) the content of the hard copy version of the paper is, in all respects, identical to the electronic version of the paper; and 6) the author must also agree to notify the AALS if and as soon as s/he learns that the submitted paper will be published before February 2009.

Presentation at the Annual Meeting: The author of any selected paper will present an oral summary of the paper at a special program to be held at the 2009 Annual Meeting. Copies of the paper will be made available for distribution to those attending the presentation.

Inquiries: Questions should be directed to David A. Brennen, AALS Deputy Director at the AALS national office in Washington, D.C. (dbrennen@aals.org).