The Berkeley/Texas/Toronto/Yale Private Law Junior Faculty Forum (BETTY) is a platform dedicated to fostering in-depth exchange of ideas on the conceptual and normative foundations of private law. It aims to build an engaged community of private law scholars, with a particular emphasis on strengthening connections between junior and senior professors.
The second session of the BETTY Forum will be hosted by the Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory on April 9-10, 2027. They are currently seeking submissions for this meeting. Six to eight junior scholars will be selected following a blind peer-review process to present their work at the Forum. A senior faculty will provide commentary on each paper, followed by the author’s response and an open Q&A session.
Topics. They welcome submissions on any topic related to the conceptual and/or normative foundations of private law. Their understanding of private law is capacious, and thus goes beyond property, contract, and torts to include also central aspects of work law, family law, organizational law, and more.
Eligibility. To be considered, authors must be in a tenured or tenure-track position and have been so for no more than 7 years. Co-authored submissions are welcome, provided that each co-author is individually eligible to participate in the Forum. Papers that will be published prior to the Forum will not be considered.
Funding. Participants are expected to cover their own travel and lodging expenses. However, BETTY may be able to secure funding for one or two participants whose institutions do not cover these costs.
Submission guidance. Please submit your paper by email (preferably no longer than 20,000 words, including footnotes) to Casey Dzubur (cdzubur@berkeley.edu) with the subject line “BETTY Forum.” The submission deadline is December 7, 2026. All references to the author should be removed from the paper. Additionally, please include as a separate attachment a cover letter with your name, institutional affiliation, paper title, and contact information.
General inquiries concerning the Forum should be sent to cdzubur@berkeley.edu with the subject line “BETTY Forum.”