Volume list

Private power, Democracy, and Human Rights

The Keele Law Review is pleased to announce a call for submissions for its 7th volume (2027) on the theme of ‘Private Power, Democracy, and Human Rights’.

The increasing concentration of private economic and technological power raises profound questions for democratic governance, constitutionalism, accountability, and the protection of human rights. Multinational corporations, digital platforms, financial actors, and emerging technological enterprises increasingly shape public discourse, influence political decision-making, affect labour relations, control access to information, and impact environmental and social conditions worldwide.

This special issue, co-edited by Prof Yossi Nehushtan, Prof Danielle Anne Pamplona, and Beatriz Flügel Assad, seeks to explore the relationship between private power, democracy, and human rights from interdisciplinary, comparative, theoretical, and empirical perspectives. We welcome contributions from scholars working in public law, constitutional law, human rights, business and human rights, corporate governance, international law, political theory, labour law, environmental law, technology regulation, and related fields.

We will accept submissions on any topic relating to the above theme, including, but not limited to: 

• Corporate human rights due diligence - and mandatory HRDD legislation
• Access to remedy and corporate liability

• Private power and constitutionalism
• Corporations as quasi-public actors
• Corporate influence on democratic institutions
• Lobbying, campaign finance and democratic legitimacy
• Corporate capture and regulatory capture
• Democratic accountability of transnational corporations

• Big Tech and democratic governance
• Platform governance and freedom of expression
• Artificial intelligence, human rights and corporate responsibility
• Digital surveillance and private actors
• Algorithmic decision-making and discrimination
• Online content moderation and democratic values
• Data governance, privacy and corporate power

• Investor Power and human rights
• Transnational regulation and global governance

• Corporate power in the Global South
• Decolonial approaches to business and human rights
• Feminist perspectives on corporate accountability
• Corporate involvement in authoritarian contexts
• Human rights implications of private security actors

Deadlines:

Proposal/abstract deadline: 14 August 2026

Notification of acceptance: By 25 August 2026

Full paper submission: 3 May 2027

Publication: late 2027

Abstract submission: abstracts of 400-600 words should be submitted to Prof Yossi Nehushtan (y.nehushtan@keele.ac.uk) and Beatriz Flügel Assad (beatriz.flugelassad@worc.ox.ac.uk), Please write “Proposed paper - KLR” in the subject line of your email and include your contact details and affiliation in the abstract document. 

Full paper submission: Full papers should be submitted by 3 May 2027. We will accept manuscripts no longer than 10,000-15,000 words (including footnotes), and short notes no longer than 4000-5000 words.

Manuscripts are welcome from academics, early-career researchers, and PhD candidates. Short notes are also welcome from LLM students.

Decisions to publish a submission are based on editorial and double-blind peer review.