Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference
Exeter 2026
Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference
Exeter 2026
The deadline to submit a paper for consideration for the ALT Annual Conference 2026 is Friday 16 January 2026 (11:59pm). Please submit abstracts to alt2026@exeter.ac.uk. Follow the University of Exeter Law School on LinkedIn for regular conference updates.
Conference Theme: ‘Reimagining Legal Education for the Future of Law‘
The University of Exeter and the Association of Law Teachers invite abstract submissions for the ALT Annual Conference 2026, which will take place on 16-17 April 2026.
Technology is radically reshaping the way we ‘do’ and study law. As a result, legal education is transforming to equip students with a broader range of knowledge, skills and competencies to ensure their success in study and their readiness for the complex and rapidly shifting demands of the future legal profession and other sectors.
Future of work and international development discourse has highlighted the role of the legal profession in strengthening the rule of law, promoting economic development, enabling access to justice and eradicating inequality, which requires law schools to educate lawyers with the soft skills and cultural competencies to work collaboratively across sectors, jurisdictions, time zones and language barriers. The International Bar Association, World Bank, OECD and ILO have all called for future lawyers to enter the legal profession with greater interdisciplinary fluency and an understanding of transnational legal frameworks to navigate emerging global challenges. Meanwhile, the rise of algorithmic decision-making, automated contract review and ‘digital lawyering’ has highlighted the need to address gaps in AI literacy and digital skills within the core law curriculum, to ensure that graduates can critically and responsibly engage with the tools and technologies that are already transforming legal practice in unprecedented ways.
In response, law teachers in the UK and beyond are reimagining legal pedagogy by innovating the way we teach and assess law: embedding experiential and clinical legal education, promoting interdisciplinarity, bridging the pedagogy/practice gap through ‘pracademia’, and redesigning curricula to promote next-gen legal skills such as technological literacy, as well as reinforcing in a new context more traditional skills such as critical thinking and human-centred lawyering skills. Many law teachers are emphasising social justice and sustainability education within the law school to produce adaptive, reflective and socially engaged graduates who can compete, thrive and make a difference in a world of work, law and business that is undergoing profound social, economic and cultural change.
The ALT2026 Annual Conference at Exeter Law School offers an opportunity for academics, professionals and practitioners to convene and exchange ideas, best practices, and opportunities to collaborate and ready our learners for the future. In particular, the conference will focus on pedagogical innovations related to teaching and assessment, human-centred legal education, and the development of emerging skills and competencies into the core law curriculum: from soft skills and professional ethics training to digital lawyering and entrepreneurial skills, including the use of AI and other technologies.
Whilst submissions can relate to any element of legal education pertaining to the overall theme, we specifically invite proposals for panels, workshops and papers on the following:
We welcome submissions in a variety of formats e.g. traditional paper presentations, panels, posters, ‘lightbulb’ TED-style talks and workshops. We particularly welcome submissions from Early Career Academics (3 years or less since completion of PhD or commencement of a full-time academic position).