Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 May 2026, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

The public law team at the University of Manchester Law Department, in collaboration with the UK Constitutional Law Association (UKCLA), is pleased to invite submissions for a two-day conference on the topic of “The Future of Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom” scheduled to take place on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 May 2026 in Manchester, United Kingdom.

The conference has two key aims. First, to evaluate ongoing constitutional reforms. Second, to facilitate discussion of what the constitution of the UK should look like in order to respond to the legal and policy challenges of the future. Constitutional reform implicates a range of topical and contested issues. We invite abstracts that speak to present and future challenges in constitutional reform including (but not limited to) the following issues:

• the role of the monarchy;
• the structure of Parliament, including its effectiveness in holding the government to account, and the position of the House of Lords as an unelected chamber of review;
• ensuring accountability of the UK’s powerful executive government;
• the proper responsibilities of the judiciary;
• the efficacy of the voting system, and the use of referenda;
• devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and
• the protection of human rights through the Human Rights Act 1998 and other mechanisms.

The deadline for abstract submissions is 5pm on Friday 21 November 2025. Paper titles and abstracts (maximum 300 words) may be submitted by the deadline through the form available at: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/ymaU05ELuA. Abstracts are welcomed from scholars at all stages, including PhD students and early career scholars.

This conference has been generously sponsored by the Hallsworth Conference Fund. This means that we may be able to arrange travel to Manchester from within the UK and accommodation near the university for those speakers who do not have other sources of conference funding. Please indicate on the abstract submission form if this is the case.  

Following the conference, we intend to publish blog posts based on the presentations on the UK Constitutional Law Association Blog.

Please direct any queries to the conference organisers: Professor Javier Garcia Oliva (javier.oliva@manchester.ac.uk), Dr Luke D Graham (luke.graham@manchester.ac.uk) and Dr Guy Baldwin (guy.baldwin@manchester.ac.uk).