Proposal Submission Deadline: Tuesday, June 30
The Washington University Law Review invites paper proposals for a symposium on “The Many Faces of the State” to be held on Friday, November 6, 2026, at WashU Law. Papers presented at the symposium will be published in the Law Review’s symposium issue (Volume 104, Issue 6) the following summer.
Legal scholars and commentators conceive of “the state” in disparate ways. They refer to the administrative state, the carceral state, the national security state, the welfare state, the preventive state, and the surveillance state. Yet these labels often operate without clear definition. What do commentators mean by each characterization? Do they suggest transformation over time, and do they imply the possibility of reform?
These questions raise deeper tensions. Are these conceptions of the state mutually exclusive, or can they coexist? How should scholars reconcile critiques of state power in areas like criminal law or immigration with support for expansive regulatory authority (or vice versa)?
Recent political developments have brought these issues into sharper focus, underscoring the interconnected nature of debates over state power. To what extent can or should discussions about immigration policy be divorced from discussions about monetary policy or agency independence? How much do normative preferences regarding state power depend on the relevant state function and regulated behavior versus the politics of the administration?
To engage these questions, this symposium seeks to bring together scholars from a range of fields, disciplines, and methodologies to examine the many “faces” of the state and to develop a more precise understanding of the structure, function, and limits of government. We welcome proposals from a range of perspectives including (but not limited to) administrative law, criminal law, immigration law, business law, and international law.
The symposium will last one day and will include a group dinner. Participants will present their draft papers on a panel with several other participants. Participants will be expected to attend the whole symposium and to read the drafts of other participants.
Published papers should be approximately 8,000 words. The editing process for the symposium issue will begin in February 2027; the issue will be published in August 2027.
There is no conference fee, and Washington University will provide all meals on the date of the conference. Funding is available to cover travel and lodging.
To apply, please submit to symposiums@wustllawreview.org a proposal of no more than 1,000 words by the end of the day on Tuesday, June 30. Submissions will be reviewed by a committee of Law Review editors under the supervision of the Symposium’s Faculty Advisors, Professor Benjamin Levin and Professor Sharon Jacobs. Selection will be based on the proposed paper’s originality as well as its capacity to spark collaborative dialogue with other presenting authors.
Participants will be notified of the Law Review’s decision by Friday, July 17. Rough drafts of participants’ papers will be due in mid-October.
Please direct any questions to the organizing Law Review editors and Professor Levin at symposiums@wustllawreview.org. The Law Review looks forward to reviewing your submissions.