The Maine Law Review is seeking article proposals for a topical issue on Maine’s new constitutional amendment establishing a Right to Food. This issue will be published in spring 2024 as Volume 76.2 of our legal journal.
Abstracts of 300-500 words are due September 22.
Maine’s constitutional amendment regarding the Right to Food is the first of its kind in the United States, and its text reads as follows:
All individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being, as long as the individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching or other abuses of private property rights, public lands or natural resources in the harvesting, production or acquisition of food.
Articles published in this upcoming volume of the Maine Law Review have the exciting opportunity to help define the parameters of the Right to Food—for Maine, and for any state that should follow in Maine’s footsteps. The editors are seeking articles that elucidate why, predict how, and offer persuasive evidence and analysis that argue the Right to Food should or will be interpreted in certain ways.
The editors encourage creative and diverse viewpoints and areas of interest; article proposals may regard any applicable legal topic to which the new amendment may apply.
Papers should be between 5,000-20,000 words. Most submissions are between 10,000-15,000 words. For any questions or to submit an abstract, please contact the Maine Law Review via email at mlreditor@maine.edu, or MLR's Executive Editor, Christopher MacLean, at christopher.maclean@maine.edu.