How do ordinary lawyers challenge inequality under authoritarian courts? Atieh Babakhani shows how Iranian family lawyers approach women-initiated divorce cases, distinguishing outcome-oriented from transformative strategies in navigating codified gender inequality. bit.ly/4eNCEsJ

Congrats to Laura Nelson, winner of LSI’s 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition! Her article shows how Pennsylvania’s 1780 Gradual Abolition Act made emancipation a struggle over records, legibility, and everyday claims to freedom. Read more here: bit.ly/3SAhXcu

Princeton University Student Laura Nelson Wins Law & Social Inquiry’s 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition - ABF

The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is delighted to announce that Laura Nelson, a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University, has won the 2026 Graduate Student Paper Competition…

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Can “failed” legal futures still matter? Davina Cooper argues that proposals to decertify sex and gender show how prefigurative law can stay “in play”—embracing failure, uncertainty, and utopian possibility while imagining radical legal change. bit.ly/4vYWcl9

Who gets a lawyer in immigration court—and who is left alone? Chiara Galli and Tatiana Padilla find that rurality, legal aid resources, and client traits shape access to counsel for unaccompanied children. Closing the justice gap requires more than formal protections. bit.ly/4oxq8Cp

Poverty is visible—but denied—in Israeli juvenile courts. @Yael Cohen-Rimer (@HU Jerusalem) shows how material deprivation is reframed as parental failure, legitimizing punitive intervention while marginalizing families. It calls for a poverty-aware, solidarity-based legal approach. bit.ly/4qUBRKN

Legal aid history in South Asia is often overlooked. In LSI, Alastair McClure (University of Hong Kong) traces the birth of India’s legal aid movement, revealing how colonial politics and elite networks struggled to connect with the very working classes they sought to serve. bit.ly/3LOzL0A

Russia’s penal system is often neglected despite its massive scale. In LSI, @Laura Francesca Piacentini (@University of Strathclyde) maps Russia’s "penal transformation" from 1991 to 2022, arguing that Soviet legacies and rising authoritarianism leave prisoners vulnerable to abuse. bit.ly/4qH6Vy8

Safeguarding youth in detention requires more than oversight—it demands a robust framework. In LSI, @Bronwyn Naylor (@RMIT) explores Australia’s path toward human rights treaties, arguing that the “monitoring of monitoring” is essential to prevent ill-treatment. bit.ly/4pVo5a3

In an @ejiltalk.bsky.social article, @kjerstilohne.bsky.social of @prioresearch.bsky.social reflects on her recent LSI article stressing the need for a more global understanding of legal mobilization as key to defending political liberalism during times of crisis: www.ejiltalk.org/lawyers-and-...

Looking forward to raising a glass w/ the LSI community, @abfresearch.bsky.social, and @thelssse.bsky.social! Join us for a rare, in-person symposium w/ no word limits, unlimited coauthors, and refreshments at the 2025 @lawandsociety.bsky.social Annual Mtg. #LSAChicago2025 @cambup-law.cambridge.org

American Bar Foundation@abfresearch.bsky.social · last yr.

Come one, come all as ABF and @thelssse.bsky.social convene to celebrate our communities and the Golden Anniversary of @lsijournal.bsky.social. RSVP to join us at the @chiarchitecture.bsky.social from 7 to 9 PM on Fri., 5/23: forms.office.com/r/pvq4axwdRe #LSAChicago2025 @lawandsociety.bsky.social

Can't wait for #LSAChicago2025? Join ABF and Northwestern Pritzker Law on Wed., 5/21 for a free webinar, Juries in the Americas: Variation and Change, examining how jury systems across the Americas have taken shape and changed over time. #lawandsociety www.americanbarfoundation.org/juries-in-th...

Calling all grad students—and faculty who work w/ grad students! Don’t miss the chance to apply for the 2025 Law & Social Inquiry Graduate Student Paper Competition. Showcase your research for a chance to win $500 and get published. 📌 Deadline: 4/11 🔗 www.americanbarfoundation.org/law-social-i...

Hello, Bluesky! 👋 We're Law & Social Inquiry, the quarterly journal of @abfresearch.bsky.social, published by @cambridgeup.bsky.social. We're new here, and we're missing some of our friends from Twitter. Join us—peer review is more fun with friends!