Call for Papers - Diversity, dilemmas and discoveries: Shaping the legal professions

The 7th annual Diversity, Dilemmas and Discoveries conference, a free, online event on Friday 27th November 2026, is hosted by the Open University Law School legal histories research cluster.

This conference explores the intertwined histories of legal education and the legal professions. Law schools, professional bodies, and the people who made them have a central role in legal history. Legal education shaped professions and people who in turn contributed to the development of legal practice, procedure, and the law itself. 

Both legal education and the legal professions face fresh challenges. New technologies affect the way law is taught and practised. Institutions must respond to changing political, social and economic contexts while also being profoundly shaped by their pasts. This is therefore an opportune time to consider their histories and how those histories are used.  

Proposals are welcome for any time period and jurisdiction. Themes may include but are not limited to:

  • Histories of legal education in the academy
  • Histories of professional education and training
  • Histories of any aspect of the legal professions
  • Legal biography
  • Legal education and empire
  • Women, working class and ethnic minority students and lawyers
  • Perceptions/reputations of the law and legal professions 
  • Uses of legal history by lawyers and judges.
  • The significance of legal history for the professions

We invite proposals for... 

  • 15-minute papers; or 
  • 15-minute presentations in alternative formats 

...and particularly welcome those which address the central theme of diversity, dilemmas and discoveries. 

Abstracts (not exceeding 300 words) should be submitted by email to [email protected] by Friday 16 October 2026.