The Center for Ethics, Diversity, and Workplace Culture, the Center for Legal Studies and Business Ethics, and the American Business Law Journal (ABLJ) welcome submissions on business ethics and the future of work. The ABLJ is rated an A journal on the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) journal quality list and is the premier peer-reviewed research journal in business law. The symposium theme is consistent with 2020 AACSB Standard 9. The ABLJ anticipates publishing a special issue devoted to the symposium theme.

The societal, economic, cultural, and public health challenges and opportunities of the last decade have dramatically altered the ways that workers around the globe conceive of their work and the workplace. The #MeToo and Black Lives Matter Movements, the global pandemic, innovations in technology and artificial intelligence, and a resurgence of labor organizing, among other forces, necessitate a reconsideration of ethical business practices particularly as they impact employees and the modern workplace. Organizations across industry sectors must contemplate “hybrid” work spaces, demands for corporate social responsibility, and serious calls for an equitable and inclusive workplace culture. While industry professionals are beginning to contemplate these large-scale changes, there is a need for legal and ethics research to help guide this conversation. This symposium hopes to generate a broad range of scholarship that develops thought leadership around business ethics and the future of work in this new reality.

We are seeking submissions that may include topics related to legal and/or ethical perspectives on employment discrimination, changing technologies as they impact the workplace, hybrid and remote work, corporate social responsibility and/or ESG, labor organizing, and compliance. Application of the ethics literature to these issues is encouraged. Only submissions on the symposium theme will be considered for presentation. Interdisciplinary submissions are especially welcome.

The symposium will be held February 24-25, 2023, in a virtual format (specific details to follow). We are mindful that many variables may influence someone’s decision to apply for the symposium, so we have chosen a virtual format to increase opportunities for participation from scholars worldwide. If selected, participants must commit to submitting a complete draft of their paper no later than Friday, February 10, 2023 (two weeks prior to the symposium), as participants will be expected to read and provide feedback on other papers in advance of the symposium. Coauthored papers are welcome, and all authors may participate in the symposium.

If you are interested in participating, please send a one-page abstract of your proposed paper, along with your CV, by Monday, October 17, 2022, to Laurie Lucas at llucas@okstate.edu. Please use Microsoft Word for submissions.

As a condition of participation in the symposium, the proposed work must remain unpublished (i.e., not under any stage of submission or review at any journal or law review) prior to the close of the symposium. The ABLJ cannot provide expedited reviews of submissions to the special issue.

Participants whose abstracts are selected will be notified by Friday, November 4, 2022.

The ABLJ anticipates publishing an issue devoted to the symposium theme. The symposium issue will be Volume 60, Issue 4 (2023). Articles submitted for consideration must conform to The Bluebook (21st Edition). To increase publication opportunities, the ABLJ is soliciting articles between 12,000 and 20,000 words in length, inclusive of footnotes. The ABLJ anticipates publishing four or five articles in the special issue.

Upon conclusion of the symposium, to be considered for publication in this issue, you must submit your final paper for peer review under the conditions stated above directly to the ABLJ by Friday, March 31, 2023, at abljsubmission@alsb.org.