The 2025 LSAANZ Conference is an in-person event.
Please email your proposals tolsaanz2025@canterbury.ac.nzfollowing the instructions for submissions.
Topic
Call for Abstracts
14 April 2025
Guidelines for submitting presentations/panels
HOW TO APPLY
Tēnā koutou katoa – Warm greetings to you all.
The 2025 LSAANZ Conference Call for Abstracts is now open!
Under the themes Rights, Relationality, Resilience, Reciprocity this conference will explore how understandings of rights and responsibilities are evolving in response to legal and social change; and how we can reimagine our socio-legal relationships in ways that foster resilience and better reflect our reciprocal relationships with each other and the world we live in.
This conference will bring together law and society scholars across multiple disciplines and jurisdictions to engage in thought-provoking and reflective conversations on key areas of sociolegal studies. Conference activities will include keynote and panel presentations, thematic sessions, an early career researcher workshop, book launches, a dinner and cultural events. Confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Anne Poelina, Gerrard Albert of Whanganui Iwi, Professor Keakaokawai Varner Hemi, Associate Professor Sereana Naepi, and Associate Professor Julia Dehm.
We invite sociolegal scholars, postgraduate students and others working at the intersections of law and society to send in your abstract proposals for oral presentations and fully formed panels. We are especially interested in submissions that address the following questions, in line with the themes Rights, Relationality, Resilience, Reciprocity:
- How are sociolegal understandings of rights and responsibilities evolving in response to modern challenges?
- In what ways can legal frameworks better reflect the reciprocal relationships between individuals, communities, and the environment?
- How are legal processes of litigation and law reform being strategically mobilised to either support or obstruct key social and ecological challenges like climate change and social inequality?
- How do different cultural, Indigenous, or historical perspectives inform our understandings of relationality in law and society?
- What role does resilience play in legal and social systems, and how can it be fostered through policy, practice, and advocacy?
- How can sociolegal relationships be reimagined to promote justice, inclusion, and sustainability?
- What tensions or contradictions arise in balancing individual rights with collective responsibilities in law and governance?
- How can interdisciplinary and pluralist approaches contribute to more holistic understandings of rights, relationality, resilience, and reciprocity?
However, we welcome all submissions within the scope of law and society broadly defined.
15 April 2025
SUBMISSIONS OPEN
31 August 2025
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE
by 30 September 2025
NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE
Instructions for submission
The 2025 LSAANZ Conference will bring together sociolegal researchers, students, practitioners, policymakers and community experts, so we welcome a variety of abstracts drawing on diverse knowledge-bases and across all career stages. Applications by early career researchers are especially encouraged. This guidance provides some instructions and tips on how to structure your presentation. Please note that there is a limit of one abstract per person per category.
- Oral Presentation
Oral presentations will be 15 minutes + 5 minutes for questions. Oral sessions are 90 minutes, with four papers per session. A chair appointed by the Organising Committee will introduce the speakers and manage the time.
An oral paper presentation may be authored by an individual or by a group. In cases where there is more than one author, person who submits the abstract will be the person with whom we communicate, and it is their responsibility to liaise with the other named authors. The submitted abstract should be 250 words or less.
Please include:
- Name, affiliation, and brief bio (maximum 100 words).
- Email address for contact.
- Type of submission (individual presentation/group presentation).
- Title.
- Abstract (up to 250 words).
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- Panel Presentation
Panel presentations are 90 minutes sessions that include between three and five papers addressing a common theme. Submissions for panel presentations shall include fully formed panels and a named Chair/Convenor who is responsible for ensuring that the contributors attend the conference. Each presenter in a panel presentation will have up 25 minutes, depending on the number of papers. The Chair/Convenor is responsible for introducing and closing the session, managing the use of time within the session and to make sure that there is sufficient time for questions and discussion.
One person is responsible for submitting the following (all in one document).
- Name, affiliation and brief bio (maximum 100 words) of Chair/Convenor.
- Email address for contact.
- Panel title.
- An abstract (maximum 300 words) that describes the theme of the panel.
- The shorter abstracts for each of the papers included in the proposed panel (maximum 150 words for each contribution with name of the author, title of the presentation and content).
The length shouldnot exceed 800 wordsin total.
The person that submits the proposal will be the person with whom we communicate, and it is their responsibility to liaise with the other panellists.
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Contact Us
If you have any questions or need information about the 2025 LSAANZ Conference, please feel free to get in touch with us.
