Call for Papers: SCoLA 2027 Conference on 'Corporate Law in a Changing World', Bond University Faculty of Law, Gold Coast (Australia)

The Society of Corporate Law Academics (SCoLA) holds its 2027 annual conference at the Bond University Faculty of Law, Gold Coast, Australia, from Sunday 7 February to Tuesday 9 February 2027. The conference is held entirely in person on Bond University's Robina campus. Bond University is Australia's first private, not-for-profit university, and its Faculty of Law is hosting the 2027 edition of what is the principal annual gathering of corporate law scholars in the Australia, New Zealand and wider Asia-Pacific academic community.

Proceedings open on the afternoon of Sunday 7 February 2027 at 2 pm with NextGen sessions and teaching sessions, followed by informal networking. The full-day conference programme runs on Monday 8 February and Tuesday 9 February 2027, with the official Welcome Dinner on the Monday evening. Keynote and guest speaker announcements, along with the detailed programme, are to be released by the organisers in the months ahead.

The organising committee frames the 2027 theme around a simple observation: in a time where relentless change seems to be the only certainty, the basic systems on which the world has been premised since the Second World War are transforming. Political, financial and economic systems, multilateral institutions and global trade are in flux. Relationships among and between corporations, governments and ordinary people are shifting alongside revolutionary technological advances, changing access to markets and resources, and shifting power dynamics in both domestic and international spheres.

Against that backdrop the committee asks how corporations are adapting to, or driving, contemporary developments, and what corporate law is doing and what it should be doing in the face of these forces of change. The corporate form has proven resilient and adaptable, and the conference invites work that tests how far that adaptability extends.

The committee invites proposals for papers or panels that critically engage with any aspect of the conference theme. Two submission formats are open.

• Paper proposal: an abstract of no more than 250 words, three key words, and a short biography of a maximum of 100 words.
• Panel proposal: an abstract of no more than 400 words, three key words, and a short biography of a maximum of 100 words.

Submissions are made through the online abstract form hosted by Bond University. The deadline for papers is Friday, 2 October 2026.

Topics that intersect with the theme may include, but are not limited to, the following.

• Current and potential use, impacts and ramifications of AI and other technological breakthroughs in relation to corporate law, including AI safety and possible implications for corporate social responsibility
• Corporate purpose and the theory of the firm
• Modern trends in corporate governance
• Corporate law reform
• Contemporary issues in directors' duties and liability
• Corporate liability including enterprise liability and developments in corporate criminal liability
• Turnarounds, restructurings, corporate insolvency and corporate collapses
• Corporate finance and securities, including the use of modern financial instruments such as crypto assets, takeovers and corporate groups
• Purpose-driven entities and related topics including not-for-profits, social enterprise, state-owned enterprises and public sector governance
• Sport governance, including corporate and enterprise governance of sporting organisations, governance responses to integrity risks, compliance failures and reputational crises, and the implications of globalisation, commercialisation and digital transformation for sport governance
• Reporting and disclosure (financial, sustainability, modern slavery, environmental and related)
• Corporations' involvement in politics, geopolitics and international relations
• Corporations and the ESG mandate: directors' duties, stakeholder engagement, and legal risk
• Comparative, international or transnational perspectives on any of the above
• The intersection of AI in teaching, assessment and research in corporate law

The call is addressed to corporate law academics, researchers and postgraduate research students, and the committee places no jurisdictional restriction on submissions. SCoLA describes itself as a society for corporate law academics within Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, and its prize rules confirm that authors need not be SCoLA members. Scholars based in India and elsewhere outside Australia and New Zealand may therefore submit abstracts and present, subject to registering for the conference. The 2026 Best Conference Paper Prize, for reference, went to a scholar based at the National University of Singapore.

The one firm condition stated in the call is that all presenters are required to register for the conference in order to present.

Submitting an abstract costs nothing. Registration for the conference is separate and is required of every presenter. Bond University has opened a ticketing page for the conference on Eventbrite, and the registration information section of the conference page is marked as coming soon, so the fee amount had not been published at the time of writing. SCoLA has said that further conference information, including details of registration fees, bursaries and accommodation options, will be posted to its website.

The host has negotiated rates with several Gold Coast properties for delegates. voco Gold Coast in Surfers Paradise is offering a standard room at AUD 175 per room per night, or AUD 195 with one buffet breakfast, and will honour a seven-day cancellation policy for SCoLA attendees. Quest Robina offers a corporate rate of AUD 179 on mentioning Bond University, and Swell Resort at Burleigh Heads offers a 10 per cent Bond University discount. Hilton Surfers Paradise is also listed. Delegates are advised to ask whether the Bond University SCoLA Conference rates apply to their stay.

SCoLA also welcomes submissions for two prizes that run alongside the annual conference.

• Best Conference Paper Prize: valued at AUD 500 and sponsored by the Governance Institute of Australia. The paper must be presented at the annual SCoLA conference, must not have been previously published or presented at a plenary session, and must not have been presented as a result of an invitation by the conference organisers. Authors need not be SCoLA members, and eligibility runs to academics at senior lecturer level or below. A suggested length of 5,000 to 8,000 words applies, without strict limits, and a selection committee of at least three people assesses entries.
• Corporate Law Student Essay Prize: awarded in three tiers and open to current students or recent graduates of Australian or New Zealand universities only. Winning papers may be published in the Australian Journal of Corporate Law at the editors' discretion.

Entry timelines for the 2027 round of both prizes are set separately by SCoLA and are published on the SCoLA prize pages, so intending entrants should watch those pages rather than assume the abstract deadline applies.

The conference is held at Bond University, 14 University Drive, Robina, Queensland 4226, Australia. Robina sits on the Gold Coast and is reachable from the Gold Coast city centre and the major transport hubs, with Gold Coast Airport and Brisbane both serving international arrivals. Bond publishes campus access, wayfinding and parking guidance on its website, and the conference page carries a Google Maps pin for the campus.

Indian participants should factor in Australian visitor visa processing time and, where a paper is accepted, request an invitation letter from the organising committee early.