We're received the following call for abstracts:
The Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice and conference co-organizers Kathleen Engel, Ted Mermin, Rory Van Loo, and Lauren Willis are pleased to announce the third annual Consumer Law Scholars Conference (CLSC), which will be held the afternoon and evening of March 4 and all day March 5, 2021, at Boston University. In light of current uncertainties surrounding travel, we hope to be able to meet in person but plan to make arrangements for potential remote participation depending on how the situation develops.
The conference will support in-progress scholarship, foster a community of consumer law scholars, and build bridges with scholars in other disciplines who focus on consumer issues. The bulk of the conference will consist of paper workshop sessions at which discussants, rather than authors, introduce and lead discussions of the papers. Everyone who attends a session will be expected to have read the paper; everyone is a participant. Speakers will include both leading scholars and prominent policymakers.
If you would like to workshop an unpublished paper, please submit: (1) a title, (2) a short abstract that grounds your work in relevant literature, and (3) an outline HERE by August 3, 2020 (abstract and outline should be uploaded as a single file). We will inform selected authors that their submissions have been accepted no later than October 2.
We welcome doctrinal, theoretical, and empirical approaches. Potential topics include the full breadth of issues involving consumers in the marketplace: common law contracts and products liability; UDA(A)P and disclosure laws; food, drug, and public health law; consumer lending, credit reporting, and fintech; loan servicing and debt collection; commercial speech and the First Amendment; federalism, preemption, and sovereign immunity as related to consumer transactions; regulation, supervision, and enforcement by public agencies; private enforcement; the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic; and more.
Workshop versions of the papers will be due January 15, 2021. We reserve the right to cancel workshops if the paper draft is not provided sufficiently in advance for meaningful review by participants.
Conference participants will be expected to read the papers in advance. 15 papers will be discussed over the course of 5 sessions (3 concurrently per session), meaning that each participant should be prepared to read and comment on 5 of the selected papers. Accordingly, please calendar at least two days of preparation time in advance of the conference. The final schedule of sessions will be distributed in February.
LOGISTICS
Participants will cover their own travel and lodging expenses. (The Center has a very small amount available for those who could not otherwise attend.) Breakfast and lunch will be provided to all attendees on Friday. Authors and discussants are invited to attend dinner on Thursday evening. We will reserve a block of hotel rooms nearby and will share further details soon.
We look forward to seeing you — whether virtually or in person — in March 2021!
Sincerely,
The CLSC Organizing Committee:
Kathleen Engel
Ted Mermin
Rory Van Loo
Lauren Willis
Questions? Please contact Ted Mermin at tmermin@law.berkeley.edu, Rory Van Loo at vanloo@bu.edu, and/or Ben Hiebert at ben.hiebert@law.berkeley.edu.
