The Washington University Law Review has issued a call for papers for its 2026 Annual Symposium, “The Many Faces of the State,” to be held on Friday, November 6, 2026, at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Paper proposals are due Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Here is the description from the call:
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.
Published papers will be approximately 8,000 words and will appear in the Law Review’s symposium issue (Volume 104, Issue 6) in August 2027. Washington University will provide all meals on the date of the conference, and funding is available to cover travel and lodging.
Proposals of no more than 1,000 words should be submitted to symposiums@wustllawreview.org by the end of the day on Tuesday, June 30. Participants will be notified by Friday, July 17, with rough drafts due in mid-October. The Faculty Symposium Advisors are Professor Benjamin Levin (Washington University) and Professor Sharon Jacobs (University of California, Berkeley).
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