Call for Papers (AALS Members): Workshop on Transnational Perspectives for Equality Law

Julie Suk (Cardozo), who is both a member of the network and the AALS European Law Section executive committee, has passed on the call for papers below for the AALS Mid-Year workshop in Washington, DC on June 22-24, 2014.  The topic is 'Transnational Perspectives for Equality Law'. More details can be found below.  Please note that eligibility to submit is limited to faculty members of AALS member schools; visiting, adjunct and international faculty members, along with graduate students and fellows, are unfortunately not eligible.

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Call for Presentations and Papers

Workshop on Transnational for Equality Law

June 22-24, 2014

Washington, D.C.

We are seeking proposals for presentations and papers for the 2014 Mid-Year Workshop on Transnational Perspectives for Equality Law.  The Workshop will be held on June 22-24, 2014 in Washington, DC at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel.  The workshop will begin with registration at 4:00 p.m. and a reception at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 22 and conclude at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24.  It will appeal to a wide range of teachers and scholars interested in these and related subject areas.


Background

Antidiscrimination law is an American invention that has spread all around the world.  During the American civil rights movement of the 1960s, antidiscrimination law promised radical social transformations towards equality for women and minorities in the workplace, in politics, and in education.  But recent developments in Equal Protection and Title VII doctrine have paralyzed this trajectory.  Meanwhile, the last decade has seen the unprecedented globalization of antidiscrimination law, as well as its expansion and alternative development outside the United States, catalyzed largely by the European Union's two directives in 2000, on race equality and on equal treatment in employment.  Over the last few years, a new body of equality law and policy experimentation has emerged not only in the EU and in European countries, but also in South Africa, Canada, Latin America, and Asia. There is a range of public policies adopted to mitigate the disadvantages of vulnerable groups such as racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, women, the disabled, the elderly, and the poor, constituting an "equality law" that goes beyond norms prohibiting discrimination.

At the same time, antidiscrimination law in the United States seems to be changing. U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the last several years (Ricci v. DeStefano, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, Wal-Mart v. Dukes) have signaled the end of antidiscrimination law as envisioned by the civil rights movement in the United States.  In response, there is growing scholarly interest in finding new approaches to the persistent problem of structural inequality.  Comparative reflection is a productive tool, particularly when energy and optimism surround the trajectory of antidiscrimination law and equality policy outside of the United States.  Now that there is over a decade's worth of new antidiscrimination activity in the EU countries following the 2000 equality directives, the time is ripe for scholarly reflection and evaluation of these developments. From an intellectual, practical, and strategic perspective, antidiscrimination scholars in the United States can no longer ignore developments in antidiscrimination law in other countries.

While a growing number of American legal scholars are lamenting the limits of antidiscrimination law, the recent growth of this body of law outside of the United States has largely gone unnoticed. The central purpose of this mid-year meeting is to widen the comparative lens on U.S. equality law - its failures, its achievements, and its potential -- across a variety of subject areas.  The meeting will provide a unique and much-needed opportunity to bring together scholars from various fields - constitutional law, employment discrimination law, comparative law, comparative constitutional law, election law, education law - to deepen and enrich the scholarship and teaching of equality.   The meeting will also provide a unique opportunity for U.S. scholars to interact with a wide, varied, and stimulating group of antidiscrimination scholars working around the world.

Additionally, law schools are increasingly making their curricula more transnational and comparative.  This conference will assist teachers in integrating comparative perspectives to illuminate constitutional law, employment discrimination law, employment law, and other traditional subjects.

The Workshop will explore a number of critical questions including what is at stake in looking comparatively when doing equality law; how affirmative action is understood in other legal systems; understanding disparate impact, accommodation, and positive rights.  There will be sessions on religion, profiling, and equality and social movements.  Transnational perspectives on equality law will be a greater component of antidiscrimination scholarship going forward. This meeting should not be missed.

Call for Papers for Presentations and Papers

The Workshop will feature several plenary panels.  These panels will address the following themes and subjects: the relevance of foreign law in the U.S. constitutional interpretation; the rise of quotas as a policy tool to achieve race and gender balance in legislatures, workplaces, and institutions of higher learning; a comparative assessment of disparate impact doctrine or indirect discrimination; a comparative analysis of secularism and religious tolerance; modalities and methodologies for teaching transnational law in US law schools.

The Workshop Planning Committee seeks proposals for presentations and papers on any of the Workshop themes or on relevant issues at the intersection of transnational perspectives and equality law.  Selected papers will be presented in one of two concurrent sessions on Tuesday June 24, 2014 between 10:30 A.M. - 12:00 P.M.  For these concurrent sessions we are seeking proposals that are in various stages of development. We expect to select three or four presentations for each of the concurrent sessions.   Each presentation will be about 15 minutes, followed by questions from the moderator and the audience.

Interested faculty members should submit a brief written description (no more than 1000 words) of the proposed presentation or paper, along with their résumés. Please email these materials to 14-tpelcfp@lists.aals.org by Friday, December 20, 2013.

Selection

The Planning Committee will notify selected speakers by January 13, 2014.  Please indicate if you would like the opportunity to receive comments from a senior scholar.

Eligibility

Faculty members of AALS member schools are eligible to submit proposals for the presentation opportunities or for papers.  Visiting, adjunct and international faculty members, along with graduate students and fellows are not eligible.

Those selected for the presentation or paper opportunity must register for the Workshop and pay the registration fee.  Participants are also responsible for their own travel and other expenses.  Please direct questions to the Planning Committee members.

Planning Committee

Tim A. Canova, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center,  
Guy-Uriel E. Charles, Duke University School of Law
Richard T. Ford, Stanford Law School
Reva Siegel, Yale Law School
Julie Suk, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University