The Northern Illinois University (NIU) Law Review is accepting submissions for its 2026 Symposium Issue!
The NIU Law Review will host its 36th Annual Symposium on Agricultural Law and how modern issues such as federal funding, immigration, and administrative regulations impact farmers, businesses, and lawyers. The symposium will take place on (NEW DATE!) February 28, 2026. The topic for this symposium is Growing Strong: Modern Issues in Agricultural Law.
Recent government changes have had a staggering impact on the modern farmer. Funding for farms and agriculture-based businesses has drastically changed, and crack downs on immigration have altered farm labor. Moreover, administrative regulations have both helped and constrained farmers, businesses, and lawyers in the agricultural sector. All this taken in conjunction with a concerning lack of rural lawyers to represent those involved in agriculture, modern agricultural law is in a state of extreme need and evolution. NIU, located in the rural county of DeKalb, Illinois, has a front row seat to the shifts taking place in the agricultural sector and agricultural law.
A proposed submission or abstract will focus on Agricultural Law and its relation to the needs, struggles, or triumphs of modern farmers, agriculture-based businesses, or lawyers representing clients involved in agriculture. However, we will consider all articles that relate to Agricultural Law and rural law. Agricultural Law topics include, but are not limited to, issues with federal funding; immigration and farm labor; administrative regulations on farmers and agriculture-based businesses; and the needs of rural communities and lawyers.
Please submit your papers by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, October 15th, 2025. You may also submit a maximum of 1,500-word abstract for prior approval. If submitting an abstract for approval, please submit your abstract by July 11, 2025. Notification of abstract approval will be communicated to the author by August 1, 2025. Notifications for papers based on an abstract will be communicated by November 15, 2025. All decisions regarding other paper acceptance will be communicated by November 1, 2025. All submissions and abstracts to be considered for publication should be directed to the NIU Law Review Symposium Editor, Ashley Larsen, at her email: alarsen2@niu.edu. Proposed submissions and abstracts should be in Microsoft Word format, 12-point font, and preferably Times New Roman. All citations should adhere to the Bluebook.
In addition, authors who are extended and accept a publication offer may be offered the opportunity to attend the symposium at the NIU Naperville campus in Naperville, IL to present their articles.
Please direct any questions to the attention of the Symposium Editor, Ashley Larsen, at her email alarsen2@niu.edu. We look forward to hearing from you and reading your amazing work! Northern Illinois University Law Review is a professional student-run journal that publishes articles of interest to legal scholars, students, and attorneys.