The Food and Drug Law Institute, in collaboration with the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and the Georgetown University Law Center, is soliciting legal scholarship on topics addressing racial equity and inclusion in food and drug law, policy, and regulation. Submissions might examine causes and opportunities to overcome racial injustice or provide specific analysis of actions for building equity into food and drug law or address other topics exploring the past, present, and future of racial equity in this field. Like the Food and Drug Law Journal, this Symposium will focus on topics within the purview of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but submissions can address other regulators in addition to FDA.

Goals of Symposium:

1. Identify and discuss past and present racial injustices in food and drug law
2. Suggest and analyze possible remedies and reforms

The Food and Drug Law Journal 2021 Symposium encourages thoughtful scholarship on topics addressing racial inequities in food and drug law and regulation, such as:

• Inequities in drug development, including diversifying clinical trial subjects
• Effects of underrepresentation of racial minorities in regulatory decision-making on understanding of certain conditions and best treatment measures
• Unconscious bias and its impact on medical product development
• Drug accessibility in underserved communities
• Effect of data collection and interpretation, including in the utilization of Real-World Evidence
• Regulation of flavored tobacco products
• Advertising potentially riskier food, drug, and cosmetics products to people of color
• Inequity in regulation of cosmetics products
• Vaccine hesitancy and lessons learned from COVID-19
• Whether there is a need for new legal authorities or regulations, and what those could be

Call for Submissions

The Call for Submissions closed on June 28, 2021. Draft articles must be submitted by October 18. Thank you to everyone who submitted a paper!

Please contact Paige Samson with any questions.

Paper Submissions:

The Food and Drug Law Journal (FDLJ) is the publication sponsor for this Symposium and reserves a right of first refusal to publish accepted papers, subject to the editorial review process. All final papers should be under 25,000 words in length, double-spaced, and in Times New Roman font. FDLJ requires footnotes that conform with the 21^st edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Additional author guidelines are available here. Questions regarding submission requirements may be directed to [email protected].

Commentary Submissions:

Commentaries are complementary discussion pieces and should be written to foster dialogue on a particular subject. Final commentaries should be no more than 6,000 words, in a more informal style with sparing use of citations.

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FDLI applies for CLE credits in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. These CLE approvals may also be honored by other states; please check with your bar association for guidance. The CLE credits will be posted as they are granted and you can request to be notified when approval is received.