The Institute for Justice’s Center for Judicial Engagement and the Liberty and Law Center at Antonin Scalia Law School are pleased to announce a conference: “The Other Declarations of 1776.” Additional details for the conference are available here.

We invite authors interested in exploring these and related topics to submit proposals for papers. We are looking for a journal where the papers will be published as a symposium. The number of papers published will depend on the quality of applications but the anticipation is to select approximately six. The writers are expected to attend the conference in person. Papers should be approximately 10,000 words and should address the history, meaning, and impact of state declarations of rights of 1776. We encourage this to include their impact on the later development of judicial review and constitutional government. A non-exclusive list of suggested topics include the following, but additional topics are welcome:

• How cognizant were the framers of the “Other Declarations” of any break their new declarations and constitutions represented from parliamentary supremacy?
• When and how did the stirring words of an individual state’s declaration of rights come to be seen as a law that binds future legislatures?
• Did the framers of the “Other Declarations” see themselves in the tradition of the Glorious Revolution and the Declaration of Rights of 1689, or as a different method for a different age?
• Were “Other Declarations” an impetus for the development of judicial review in subsequent decades, or were later appeals to them in conjunction with judicial review a method of retrofitting history?
• How did the “original meaning” of certain provisions in the “Other Declarations” influence later constitution writing and interpretation?
• What was the relationship between the Declaration of Independence and the “Other Declarations”? 
• More specifically, did Thomas Jefferson’s well-known cribbing of George Mason’s Virginia Declaration have a meaningful impact on subsequent constitutional history?
• How does the legacy of the “Other Declarations” differ from the Declaration of Independence and/or the federal Bill of Rights? 
• Are there untold stories of contributions from the “Other Declarations” to later constitutional law—such as ancestors of the First and Fourth Amendments—that we should know about?
• What thinkers actually had an impact on the “Other Declarations”—such as Locke, Pufendorf, Montesquieu, Rousseau, etc.—or were their ideas not relevant to the more practical concerns of revolution?

Reasonable travel and hotel expenses will be provided for those selected to write and present papers. International travel will be considered on a case-by-case basis but cannot be guaranteed. An honorarium of $2,500 will also be provided to selected paper authors. 

submit your proposal