We invite submissions from scholars across disciplines interested in how laws and regulations are interpreted, implemented, and transformed in real-world institutional settings. 

Legal meaning is shaped not only in courts or legislatures, but in offices, classrooms, clinics, and council chambers—by actors whose interpretations are framed by professional roles, organizational logics, and institutional incentives. This conference invites reflection on the interpretive practices that emerge in such contexts, and how these practices affect what law becomes in use. 

We welcome work from experimental jurisprudence, philosophy of language, linguistics, law & economics, public administration, and related fields. Contributions may be theoretical, empirical, or methodological. 

Possible topics include (but are not limited to): 

• Studies of how non-lawyers interpret and apply legal or regulatory texts 

• Experimental investigations of interpretation in institutional settings 

• Pragmatic and semantic analysis of policy and legal communication 

• Incentive structures and role-based reasoning in interpretation 

• Legal meaning as mediated through contracts, guidelines, or protocols 

• Interpretive drift and discretion in organizational environments 

• Extensions or critiques of experimental jurisprudence beyond traditional contexts

• Interdisciplinary methods for studying law “in the wild” 

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts are applications for 1-hour slots (30-40 minute talk + 30-20 minute Q&A). Abstracts (max. 600 words -- excluding a list of references) should: (a) make clear the line of argument for the conclusion defended; (b) make clear the relevance of the envisioned talk to the conference theme; and (c) be prepared for anonymous review.

Invited Speakers

• Ivar R. Hannikainen (Department of Philosophy, University of Granada) 

• Jekaterina Nikitina (Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Mediations, University of Milan) 

• Karolina Prochownik (Center for Law, Behavior, and Cognition, Ruhr University Bochum) 

• Izabela Skoczeń (Law Faculty, Jagiellonian University) 

• Alexander Wulf (Centre for Social Legal Studies, University of Oxford) 

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Mark Fogel (mark.fogel@ut.ee).