The City University of Hong Kong School of Law (CityUHK, SLW) and the Private Law Chapter of the Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA) are pleased to announce their inaugural in-person conference and call for papers on the theme: ‘Private Law in Crisis: From Doctrine to Policy’, scheduled to take place from 28-29 May 2026.
The conference welcomes contributions from established and earlier career academics and academic practitioners keen to explore this timely topic. The world has seen in recent years an unprecedented series of crises – global epidemics, climate change and environmental disasters, political and economic instability, massive inequality, a climate of misinformation as well as technology disruptions. These crises have challenged national and global policy-makers to develop innovative solutions to large-scale problems, and raised questions addressed by constitutional lawyers, international law academics, law and society, law and technology and environmental law experts.
In this regard, what role does the private lawyer, judge, or jurist play? Private lawyers are concerned with torts, contracts, restitution, property, and equity, sometimes depicted in individualistic and bilateral terms. Are such macro-scale questions beyond the remit of private law, being concerned with ‘policy’, poly-centric issues, governmental or regulatory expertise, and ‘public’ considerations? Or are traditional divisions of labour tested in such testing times? If so, what exactly is the contribution of private law? Could it involve novel applications of doctrines such as frustration or change of circumstances, or perhaps modifications and extensions of conventional concepts such as standing, rights, wrongs, liabilities, duties, causation, proximity and so forth? Or might it require us to think through novel schemes of regulation, including collective redress, loss-spreading and compensation, and regulatory solutions straddling private law, criminal law, and administrative law? Moreover, doctrinal and regulatory solutions to a particular problem may be addressed in different ways by different jurisdictions, allowing for comparative learning and cross-fertilisation of ideas and concepts. The possibilities for paradigm shifts are exciting as well as urgent.
Submission information
To submit an abstract for this conference (not more than 800 words), please email the organisers at [the submission page] by 30 November 2025. Please include a brief biography (up to 100 words) for each author.
Abstracts will be selected based on originality, fit with the theme and other papers, and indications of quality, with the aim of welcoming cross-jurisdictional diversity and dialogue. Final papers (not more than 10,000 words inclusive of footnotes) will be due by 30 April 2026. The organisers envisage that a selection of papers may be put together as an edited collection or special issue of a refereed journal, subject to quality of the contributions and the usual editing process.
Further information
Participation in the conference is free-of-charge. Participants bear their own costs for travel, accommodation, and local transportation. However, accommodation at the Royal Plaza Hotel and the Royal Park Hotel may be available at a discounted rate. Meals and refreshments will be kindly provided during the conference by City University School of Law.
For non-presenting participants interested in attending this event, please register at [the registration page] by 1 May 2026.
Organising Committee:
Professor Carrie DING Chunyan (CityUHK SLW)
Associate Professor Zhong Xing TAN (NUS Law)
Assistant Professor CHEN Yang (CityUHK SLW)
Assistant Professor HU Ying (NUS Law)
Assistant Professor Jeremiah LAU (NUS Law)
Assistant Professor TAN Weiming (NUS Law)
Advisory Panel:
Professor TAN Cheng Han (NUS Law)
Professor Lusina HO (HKU Law)
Professor James PENNER (NUS Law)
