Call for Papers
Conference on Empirical Legal Studies
October 2-3, 2026
The 2026 Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS), co-sponsored by Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the Society for Empirical Legal Studies, is now accepting submissions. CELS will consider empirical papers spanning all areas of empirical legal studies. Authors are encouraged to submit works-in-progress; however, submissions should be completed drafts that include principal results. Submitted papers must be unpublished and expected to be unpublished at the time of the conference.
The paper submission deadline is June 12, 2026 (11:59 PM Central Daylight Time). There is no charge for submissions.
To submit a paper, please visit here. We welcome replication studies and papers that develop and demonstrate empirical methods.
Papers are selected through a peer-review process. If accepted, authors will have an opportunity to submit a revised draft prior to the conference for presentation and discussion. Discussion at the conference includes assigned commentators and audience questions. Accepted papers will be made available to all conference participants. Authors of accepted papers should expect to serve as a commentator on another paper in the conference.
Additional conference information is available here.