Regional conferences North American Regional Conference: Inequality and the Future of Family Law

Theme: At a time of increasing inequality, families – and legal assumptions about families – are increasingly growing apart. The likelihood of marriage, divorce, unplanned pregnancy, access to fertility clinics, residential and relationship stability increasingly reflects differences in income, education, race, region and religion. In response, family law has become more willing to recognize families of choice, where the adults intentionally create a variety of arrangements. But family law is still beset by profound disagreements over how to treat numerous issues such as unplanned families, informal cohabitations that become longer-term arrangements, and adults without formal legal ties to a child. In a world of greater family diversity, what does it means to do justice to families who do not necessarily share the same assumptions or cultural norms about their relationships?

The conference theme is intended to be inclusive, extending to both public and private law, doctrinal and clinical family law approaches, and those from the social sciences. International and comparative approaches are strongly encouraged but not required. Participants will be welcome to propose panels or individual presentations

Workshops and Author Meets Readers Roundtables: In addition to regular conference presentations, the meeting will include a limited number of workshop sessions to provide an opportunity for discussion of scholarly works in progress. Workshop participants will be asked to circulate a brief (no more than five pages) summary of their projects before the meeting date. In addition, proposals for Author Meets Readers book discussions are welcome. The author will be responsible for insuring that copies of the book are available for purchase (if desired) and for suggesting respondents for the roundtable. 

Call for Papers: Proposals to participate in the conference should be sent to June Carbone at jcarbone@umn.edu no later than February 1, 2018. The proposals should include the participant’s name, affiliation, indication of whether the proposal is for an individual presentation, panel, workshop or Author Meets Reader roundtable, and abstract describing the content of the proposal. If the proposal is for a panel or roundtable, it should include the name and affiliation of all of the proposed participants. Abstracts should not exceed a single page for each presentation. Accepted paper presenters will be notified by March 1. Proposals may be submitted at any time. Please indicate if you need an earlier acceptance date in order to arrange travel or funding. 

Financial matters: The University of Minnesota Law School and the Center for Equitable Growth are supporting the conference. There is no registration fee. The conference will include a Friday evening dinner, continental breakfast on Saturday, and coffee and refreshments for conference participants. Participants will be responsible for their own travel and hotel expenses. Hotel and registration information will be circulated later in the year.