call for papers

[Gitrad]

Bethany Dumas, Larry Solan, and I (Peter Tiersma) are members of a collaborative research network (CRN) on language and law that is part of the Law and Society Association.  One function of CRNs is to organize sessions for the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, as we did last year for the Las Vegas meeting.  The 2006 meeting will be held July 6-9. at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore, MD, USA.  For more information on the conference, go to http://www.lawandsociety.org/ann_mtg/am06/call.htm

Based on previous experience, we expect to organize 3 or 4 sessions on language and law (each of which will have 3-4 papers).  Any scholar can submit an individual abstract to the LSA, but if you submit your abstract to us, and if we can include you in one of our sessions, your paper will be grouped with other papers on language and law. 

We therefore invite scholars who are working on language and law to submit abstracts to us.  These abstracts can be on any subject within the area of language and law, including language-related issues arising in courtroom interaction, criminal law, forensic linguistics, jury instructions, interpretation, trademarks, plain English, and so forth. 

Abstracts are due to me by midnight, December 19, 2005, Pacific Time.

Procedure:

You should send the abstract to Peter....@lls.edu.  The abstract must be between 100 and 250 words.  Please also include a title for your presentation.  It is very important to submit it on time (ie, by December 19).  I will acknowledge receipt within a day or two.  If you do not hear from me, please resubmit to ptie...@att.net.

Also include your name, affliliation, and email address. 

We will then get back to you in the next couple of days.  If we can fit you into a session, we will give you a session tracking number.  You will then have to log on to the LSA website to submit your abstract electronically.  You will also have to enter the session tracking number we have given you, along with some other information.  Your paper will then be assigned to the proper session.

If we cannot fit you into one of our sessions, we will notify you as soon as possible.  You can then submit the abstract individually to the LSA in the same manner, except that you will not have a session tracking number.  Your paper will be submitted to the LSA and, if accepted, will be assigned to an appropriate session.

In either case, the electronic submission of abstracts to the LSA website must be done before January 6, 2006 (but remember that our deadline is December 19, to give us time to organize the sessions).

We unfortunately do not have any sources of funding, so paying for travel, fees, and other expenses is your own responsibility.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes, Peter Tiersma

My new book on Language and Crime:  http://speakingofcrime.org/

Professional website: http://www.LANGUAGEandLAW.org

(language and law, jury instructions, legal texts, bilingualism, perjury, language crimes, plain English, lawyer jokes, publications, language and law bibliography, etc.)

Personal website:  http://www.tiersma.com

(biography, picture gallery, course information, summer vacations, Frisian, surviving leukemia, and more)

More about my book on legal language:  http://www.LegalLanguage.org

Peter M. Tiersma  (Peter....@lls.edu)               
Professor of Law and Joseph Scott Fellow                        
Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
919 S. Albany Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015
213-736-1162