To aid in the effort to encourage transnational sociolegal research, the Law and Society association through its Committee on International Activities is sponsoring a conference to establish an international consortium of sociolegal research institutions. The conference will organize the consortium and develop a program of activities for it, including centralized research information, personnel exchanges, research development, resources development, training, and communications (newsletters and journals). Open invitations will be issued to all sociolegal research institutions. Representatives will be able to participate in organizing the consortium and to form transnational research groups to carry out specific research projects which will be identified at the conference. Possible research topics include immigration, HIV/AIDS, the legal profession, bankruptcy, legal services, social protection, law and feminism, and environmental regulation. The conference will not only provide an opportunity for international collaboration and exchange among sociolegal scholars, it will establish a viable and active consortium of research institutions from around the world which will lead to a higher level of transnational research and a greater multinational and multicultural sensitivity to sociolegal research than would otherwise be possible. Also, it will initiate a system of international data access which will reap substantial rewards.
