The Central States Law Schools Association (CSLSA) will hold its annual conference and meeting at Southern Illinois University (SIU) Law School in Carbondale, Illinois, Oct. 24-25, 2008. The call for abstracts deadline is May 9, 2008, for those who want their pieces to be considered for publication and Aug. 15, 2008, for others. Faculty from schools outside the region may participate. Registration is free, and one night’s lodging is paid for presenters.
Traditionally, the annual CSLSA conference has been a forum for legal scholars, especially more junior scholars, to present working papers or finished articles on any law-related topic in a relaxed and supportive setting where junior and senior scholars from various disciplines are available to comment. More mature scholars have an opportunity to test new ideas in a less formal setting than is generally available for their work. Both find the cross-disciplinary comments especially stimulating to thinking about their topics in new ways. Presentations on all areas of law are welcome. Depending on proposal topics, it is anticipated that the conference will be organized into topical panels on a variety of subjects. For those who are interested, an attempt will be made to pair interested junior scholars with more senior mentors in their fields of expertise to provide feedback on their presentations or papers. Although CSLSA is a regional association, faculty from other law schools also have participated in the annual conference from as far away as Boston, Florida and Oregon. In keeping with tradition, CSLSA is able to pay for one nights lodging and meals for presenters from member schools. There is no registration fee.
Presenters at the conference will also have the opportunity to have their work published by Southern Illinois University Law Journal. Presenters who are interested in having their work published by the Southern Illinois University Law Journal must submit an abstract of no more than 500 words concerning their topic to Professor Cindy Buys at cbuys[at]siu.edu and to lawjourn[at]siu.edu by May 9, 2008, and must commit to having completed an article of publishable quality by October 10, 2008, with a final draft due November 14, 2008. Whether an article satisfies the criterion of publishable quality will be the sole decision of the SIU Law Journals Board of Editors, as will final decisions regarding publication. Questions regarding publication in the journal may be addressed to lawjourn[at]siu.edu as well. Persons wishing to present at the conference, but who do not wish to take advantage of this publication opportunity must submit an abstract of their topic of no more than 500 words by August 15, 2008 to Professor Cindy Buys at cbuys[at]siu.edu and to lawjourn[at]siu.edu.
