University of Hawaiʻi Law School Launches Free Call-for-Papers Aggregator
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law introduced The Docket on May 19, 2026-a free platform that indexes calls for papers from more than 500 sources including conferences, symposia, law reviews, and scholarly blogs. Legal scholars can search the site, subscribe to filtered email digests, and export deadlines to their calendars.
The platform uses a tiered system of AI agents to continuously discover, classify, and triage opportunities under human supervision. Law Professor Guy Rubinstein initiated the project after recognizing that legal scholars face a fragmented landscape of opportunities scattered across listservs, blogs, and social media.
"There have never been more opportunities for law professors to present, share and publish their work," Rubinstein said. "However, due to the abundance of listservs, blogs and social media platforms, it is becoming increasingly difficult for scholars to track every opportunity."
How The Docket Works
Benjamin Leider, the law school's innovation fellow and an alumnus, built the platform. Leider said that deploying AI agents required clarity about their specific tasks and the tools they needed to perform them.
"Surprisingly, getting AI to do real work was much more like management than dealing with technology," Leider said. "AI agents need clearly defined jobs, and they need the right tools to do them. When they fail, it's almost always because job expectations are unclear, or because the tools provide a bad user experience-a bad experience for the agents themselves-or because you're expecting one agent to have the expertise of three specialists."
Faculty Development Resource
Professor Brian Huffman, the law school's electronic services librarian and director of faculty development, views The Docket as essential infrastructure for scholarship. "The Docket uniquely supports faculty development and scholarship by spotlighting publishing and presentation opportunities, enabling faculty to engage quickly and strategically with the broader academic community," Huffman said.
The platform is free and open to legal scholars worldwide. Other law schools can access the same tool without licensing fees.
Dean Camille Nelson said the project reflects the school's commitment to expanding access for legal scholars. "By expanding access to opportunities for legal scholars, this initiative strengthens the exchange of ideas that is essential to advancing justice," Nelson said.
Interested in how AI supports professional work? Explore AI for Legal Professionals Courses or learn about AI Research Courses that address discovery and data organization challenges.
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