Call for Papers: Section on Financial Institutions and Consumer Financial Services

Following is a call for papers to be presented as part of the section program at the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting next January.

The program takes place one and a half years after the Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law.  The law left many of the details of financial reform to be filled in by regulators, raising the risk of capture.  Some of the most important rule makings have begun in earnest; others have stalled as reform fatigue sets in. Meanwhile, reform efforts in Europe and international regulatory initiatives remain works-in-progress. What lessons can we draw from the implementation of Dodd-Frank so far?  What have been the greatest achievements and the greatest disappointments as the legislative process has given way to the administrative?  What devils have lain hidden in the details of the Federal Register?  What aspects of reform have been largely forgotten?  What does the path of financial reform say about legislative and regulatory process?  What lessons can be drawn from the reform efforts in Europe and elsewhere?  Does the focus on regulating institutions detract from a focus on regulating financial instruments, markets or economic functions and risks? 

More ominously, is the crisis truly over?  Are we at grave risk of fighting the last war?  Has reform missed the mark altogether?  This meeting is part of a project to engage the legal academy in sustained theoretical and policy contributions to financial regulation.  It also presents an opportunity to look at specific rulemakings in detail, as well as to address larger questions about the course of reform after laws are made.

Law teachers and other scholars are invited to submit manuscripts or abstracts dealing with any aspect of the foregoing topics.  Junior faculty members are particularly encouraged to submit manuscripts or abstracts.  A review committee consisting of Section officers will select one or more papers or proposals and will invite the author(s) of each selected submission to present their work at the program session in Washington, D.C. in January 2012. 

Abstracts should be comprehensive enough to allow the review committee to meaningfully evaluate the aims and likely content of papers they propose.  Please send manuscripts or abstracts to the Program Chair (Erik Gerding, University of Colorado) at [email protected] no later than August 30, 2011.  Please place the name and contact information of authors only on the cover page of submissions.

Eligibility: Faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid law schools are eligible to submit papers for this panel presentation. Foreign, visiting and adjunct faculty members, graduate students, and fellows are not eligible to submit for this panel presentation; however, any such submissions may be considered for other parts of the Section program at the Annual Meeting.