Keyword List
For each submission, you will be asked to select two keywords. Please note that your submission will be sent to a committee member based on the first keyword that you select. The second keyword is used to suggest alternative placements if the fit with other papers appears better.
For example, if you are submitting a paper proposal on the court system, you will have several relevant keywords to choose from. If you want to be part of a panel with other scholars studying access to courts or legal services for the poor, choose the keyword “Access to Justice.” If instead you want to share your research with people studying court processes, choose the keyword “Courts and Trials.” If you would prefer to talk with people doing research on victims in the court system, choose the keyword “Crime and Victims.” A clear abstract and careful selection of keywords will help the Program Committee to create more effective panels.
ACCESS TO JUSTICE: access to courts; subsidized legal services; public interest law; pro se defense; legal services for the poor.
BUSINESS AND SOCIETY: corporate law; property; contracts; corporate governance; judicial and non-judicial remedies.
CITIZENSHIP AND NATION: law and national identity; citizenship; nation-building; citizenship and immigration; cultural identity; social citizenship; welfare state.
COLONIALITY/POST-COLONIALITY: legal and extra-legal forms of colonial governance; pluralism and hybridity in colonial and post-colonial relations; legal reconstruction of social relations; different trajectories of colonial governance; domination, accommodation, and resistance.
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND CONSTITUTIONALISM: constitutional drafting and amendment; constitutional rights; judicial review; federalism; comparative constitutions; constitutional change and social reform.
COURTS AND TRIALS: all types of courts and aspects of adjudication including customary courts; issues relating to legal infrastructure; evidence; expert witnesses; political trials; adversarial or inquisitorial systems; procedure; non-state trials; politicization of law.
CRIME AND VICTIMS: socio-legal approaches to the study of crime including theoretical and cultural as well as behavioral perspectives; social conditions affecting crime rates; victim of crime; victim reporting; victims on trial; victim advocacy.
CULTURE: everyday life; epistemology; hermeneutics; postmodernism; law and humanities; narrative; legal consciousness; reflexive analysis; emotion; affect; empathy.
DEMOCRACY AND STATE THEORY: theories of democracy; democratic institutions; legal security; liberal theory; democratic and anti-democratic practices; democracy deficit; state theory; sovereignty; policy making processes; elections; state nationalism; nationality; jurisdiction; civil society.
DEVELOPMENT AND LAW: role of law in emerging markets; foreign assistance for legal reform; “legal missionaries;” the “rule of law” and economic development.
DISPUTES AND NEGOTIATION: alternative dispute resolution; restorative justice; mediation; arbitration; formal and informal dispute resolution; civil litigation.
ECONOMY AND SOCIETY: intersections of law and economic relations; corporate law; property; contracts; micro-economic approaches to law; law and economics; law and economic transformation; corporate governance; commercial arbitration; sociology of markets.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY: pollution control; natural resources; land use; climate change; environmental ethics; wildlife; nature; disasters.
FAMILY AND YOUTH: marriage; kinship; children; co-habitation; divorce/annulment; parents/parenting; new family forms; same-sex marriage; children’s rights; changing nature of families; child welfare and the law; juvenile criminal justice; experimenting with novel ways for children to give evidence in judicial proceedings.
FEMINIST JURISPRUDENCE: feminist theory and jurisprudence
GENDER AND SEXUALITY: femininities; masculinities; feminist theory and jurisprudence; sexual violence; sexual orientation; homosexuality; bisexuality; gay studies; queer theory; transgender; intersex.
GEOGRAPHIES OF LAW: places of law, including borders, space, locality, nature, exclusions, jurisdictions, urbanity, urban citizenship, and the territoriality of law.
GLOBAL ECONOMY, BUSINESS, AND LAW: international economic issues, cross-border and international business transactions, social and political consequences of global integration and dis-integration; international and comparative tax issues; effects of private commerce on public legal choices.
HEALTH AND MEDICINE: public health; ethics; biotechnology; disease; mental health; substance abuse; injury malpractice.
HUMAN RIGHTS: including domestic and international law pertaining to human rights; theories of human rights; culture and human rights; politics of human rights; universal jurisdiction; crimes against humanity; national and international human rights trials; individual and group rights; economic, social and cultural rights.
INDIGENEITY AND FIRST PEOPLES: including comparative, domestic and international issues; customary law.
JUDGES AND JUDGING: judicial careers; judicial selection; judicial independence; discretion; trial judges; appeals judges; judicial training; emotion.
JUSTICE: theories of justice; social justice; Marxism; liberalism; economic justice; fairness; distributive justice; procedural justice; restorative and retributive justice.
LABOR: all aspects of socio-legal research relating to work and labor issues, organization, and politics.
LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE: language and rhetoric; linguistics; legal language; critical approaches legal doctrine as discourse; courtroom language; conversation; bi-and multilingualism; language rights.
LAY PARTICIPATION IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM: lay assessors; legal consciousness; juries; jury selection; jury deliberation; jury trials; law-making processes mixed tribunals.
LEGAL HISTORY: all approaches to history, including comparative and transnational histories, historiography, interdisciplinary and theoretically informed approaches to the history of substantive law, legal processes, and legal institutions.
LEGAL MOBILIZATION: individual and collective legal mobilization; law and social movements; litigation and social change; lawyers and mobilization; use of rights in mobilization; counter-hegemonic social movements.
LEGAL PROFESSION: advocacy for social and legal change; professional ethics; professionalism; cause lawyering; government lawyers; cultural histories of legal professions; legal services; prosecutors; legal education; legal careers; production of law.
METHODOLOGY: socio-legal methodology; quantitative methods; methods of cross-cultural analysis; survey research.
MIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION: immigrant rights and disputing; labor and immigration; forced migration; changing terms of citizen status; cultural defenses of illegal behavior by migrants or immigrants.
NON-STATE LEGAL ACTORS: NGOs, private regulators.
PEDAGOGY: conditions of teaching and research: pedagogy; inter- and multi-disciplinarity; legal education outside law schools; academic careers; identity issues; corporatization of higher education.
POLICING AND PUNISHMENT: international and comparative policing studies; sociolegal approaches to the study of punishment including theoretical perspectives; prisons; sentencing; death penalty; plea bargaining; corrections; alternatives to punishment.
POPULAR CULTURE, MEDIA, AND THE ARTS: popular attitudes about law; public legitimacy of legal institutions; consumption and construction of mass mediated images or narratives of law; all aspects of law and media as sites of knowledge production, including print and electronic news as well as theater, film, literature; cultural production through media; telecommunications; legal regulation of media; censorship.
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: methodologies; relation to legal education; careers; national organizations; internationalization of sociolegal studies.
RACE, ETHNICITY, AND SOCIAL CLASS: critical race theory; multiculturalism; new social movements; ethno-nationalism; whiteness; white privilege, class discrimination; social mobility; class and social theory; class mobilization; Marxian class studies; welfare state.
REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE: administrative law; self-regulation; responsive regulation; regulatory cultures; licensing; formal and informal regulatory processes; soft law; open method of coordination; hybrid public-private partnerships; negotiated rule-making; democratic experimentalism; legal pragmatism; stakeholder collaboration.
RELIGION: comparative studies; cosmology; religious freedom; religious law; discrimination; religious institutions and organizations; religious influence on law; Islamic law.
RIGHTS AND IDENTITIES: rights consciousness; everyday workings of law and rights (including women’s rights, gay rights, indigenous rights, minority rights, children's rights, civil rights and/or liberties, voting rights, disability rights, elder rights); rights and resistance; alternatives to rights-based identities.
RISK: risk society; cultural theories of risk; public perceptions of risk; studies of risk and legal regulation.
SECURITY AND TERRORISM: all aspects of law related to security and terrorism, as well as interdisciplinary work on the way national security is conceptualized, including work on targeted killings; special courts for security related offences; administrative detentions, terrorism; interrogation methods; use of secret evidence; travel restrictions; preventive deportations; wiretapping; confiscation of suspected terrorist funds; emergency measures.
SOCIAL THEORY AND LAW: social theory, postmodernity, poststructuralism, feminism, critical theory, sociological jurisprudence, critical legal studies.
TECHNOLOGY: cyberlaw; surveillance; scientific evidence; intellectual property.
TRANSITIONS TO DEMOCRACY AND REVOLUTIONS: democratization; transitional justice, truth, and reconciliation.
TRANSNATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL, AND REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS: United Nations and related organizations; international organizations (e.g. WTO, ASEAN, NAFTA, OECD, OSCE); international financial institutions (e.g. World Bank, IMF); international tribunals (e.g. International Criminal Court, WTO Dispute Settlement Body); international arbitration; transnational impact of multiple legal orders (e.g. conflicts and extra-jurisdictional effects.
WAR AND LAW: militarization; terrorism; military alliances; military tribunals; genocide; rules of war; detentions; Warsaw convention; impact of war on society and politics.