CALL FOR PAPERS – Money: Private Law and Regulation

Money is one of the oldest objects of legal thought, and its legal nature, functions, and treatment continue to evolve. New forms of private money, public digital currencies and the infrastructures that carry them raise foundational questions about what money is, who may create it, and how it is held and transferred. These questions cannot be answered in silos, nor without understanding how the law responded when money changed before.

The Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL) and the Centre for Private Law (CPL), with the support of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong (HKU Law), are launching Law in the Interstices, a conference series on core legal questions that require legal analyses beyond disciplinary boundaries. Each edition takes up one theme and aims to produce an edited volume. The first is devoted to money. It brings private law and regulatory analyses together to examine how legal systems have addressed the evolution of money, and how commercial practices, policy changes, and innovations, past, present and prospective, shape its nature, holding, and transfer.

These questions are global, and the conference is conceived as an international debate across jurisdictions and legal traditions. Hong Kong offers a natural setting for such a comparative and international debate: an international financial centre and common-law jurisdiction where a currency board, bank-issued banknotes and newly licensed stablecoins rest side by side.

THEMES

We invite papers using any method, doctrinal, historical, comparative, theoretical or empirical, on topics that may include the following (the list is indicative, and proposals that cross these lines are welcome):

• the legal nature and forms of money, as property, claim or institution, across common law and civil law traditions;
• the historical evolution of money and the law’s responses, from commodity and paper money to digital forms;
• cross-border money and payment systems, including private international law and settlement infrastructure;
• central bank money and monetary sovereignty, including CBDC design, legal nature, the public/private divide, and the role of central banks;
• private money and digital innovation, including stablecoins and tokenised deposits;
• regulatory design, market integrity, and financial stability, including licensing, conduct of business, consumer protection, and prudential regulation;
• money, public policy and the future of the monetary system, covering the role of legal institutions in shaping inclusion, sovereignty and what money should become.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS INCLUDE

Wolfgang Ernst (University of Oxford) · David Fox (University of Edinburgh) · Benjamin Geva (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University) · Katja Langenbucher (Goethe University Frankfurt) · Steven L. Schwarcz (Duke University) · Yesha Yadav (Vanderbilt University)

SUBMISSION, PUBLICATIONS AND PRACTICALITIES

Please submit, through the submission form below by 15 January 2027, a descriptive title, a short abstract of up to 200 words and an extended abstract of up to 1,000 words, accompanied by a short biographical note of up to 300 words and the other details requested in the form. The abstract should set out clearly the topic and the contribution, covering the research question, the argument, the methods, and the theme (or themes) it addresses. We welcome proposals from scholars at every career stage, including doctoral researchers, as well as from practitioners and policymakers. Papers must be original and unpublished, and speakers are expected to attend in person.

Selection will consider fit with the theme, originality and balance across traditions, jurisdictions and career stages; decisions will be communicated by 15 February 2027. Authors of selected abstracts will be required to submit a full draft paper of no more than 8,000 words by 30 April 2027, to be circulated in advance so that sessions run as discussions rather than presentations.

Selected papers will be considered for publication in an edited volume with a leading academic press. Submission signals willingness to contribute to the volume; inclusion is subject to editorial approval and review. Speakers will not be charged a registration fee for this inaugural conference, but are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation.

The conference falls in the week before the Global Meeting on Law and Society in Hong Kong (22–25 June, also hosted by the University of Hong Kong), offering an opportunity to attend both events with one trip.

Call for papers submission form: submit here

For enquiries, please contact: Ms Candy Ip