Become an Author

Write an eLangdell® casebook or chapter

This is your chance to be recognized as a pioneer of the open, digital casebook.  eLangdell® Press publishes open casebooks, casebook chapters, and supplements for law schools to adopt and use in their classes. After review and editing by our Editorial Committee and CALI staff, casebooks are given a Creative Commons license that allows them to be remixed and reused by law professors and students without fear of copyright violations. The books are then published DRM-free in a variety of digital formats (compatible with almost every reader) on the CALI eLangdell® Press website and available for download at absolutely no cost to students or professors. In most cases, they even come in print! 

See what is in progress.

More Details on Proposals and Publishing:

  • Proposals are subject to review and approval by an editorial committee. There's also a conversation with members of the committee so we can all better understand your vision for your book. 
  • Casebook or Casebook chapters previously self-published (e.g. via SSRN) will be considered.
  • Authors must be faculty at a CALI member law school. (At present, CALI is focused on resources for US law schools.)
  • Compensation for individual chapters will be $500 per chapter. Compensation for full books will be negotiated separately for each book. 
  • Your finalized chapter or book should include end-of-chapter/section note cases, comments, and questions. CALI is also including interactive questions using h5p. Examples can be viewed at lawbooks.cali.org (look at the books by Professors Alice Ristroph, Ruthann Robson and Zahr K. Said). Additionally, the project requires a Teacher's Manual to assist other professors in the adoption of your material. The Teacher's Manual is available only to faculty at CALI member law schools or faculty at institutions with an affiliate membership with CALI. Students are not given access to the Teacher's Manual.  
  • All completed first drafts or already published materials go through a peer-review process. CALI anticipates that authors will make revisions based on these peer-reviews prior to publication. 
  • Publication by CALI includes your assignment of copyright in the material; CALI distributes the completed material with a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
  • Permissions to use third-party materials (images, law review articles, or newspaper articles, for example) must be cleared by the Author and must permit distribution with a Creative Commons license.
  • Authors are encouraged to include assessment questions in the final book. Questions are moved to the h5p.org platform and appear in the web-based versions of the casebook. Please review Professor Robson's book, as an example. 
  • Your proposal should include:
    • Professor’s current CV.
    • For a book proposal, we request a sample chapter OR a very detailed outline of a chapter and written exercise that you have provided your students in the past. Additionally, we request an outline for the entire book. We prefer to NOT receive a law review article as a writing sample.
    • For a chapter proposal, we request a draft version of the full chapter. 
    • A brief statement detailing why you have chosen eLangdell® Press as your publisher.
    • Please indicate if the chapter or book is already completed and in use, in progress, or in the idea stage.
  • Deadlines for submission of proposals for either chapters or casebooks are as follows:
     
    • March 10, 2023
    • CALI is busy in spring & summer preparing books for Fall semester
    • August 30, 2023
    • November 03, 2023
    • January 19, 2024
    • Additional dates will be announced. 
  • You may sign up here for updates on eLangdell Press, including notices for acceptance for new proposals here.
  • Send proposals & questions about eLangdell Press to Deb Quentel, CALI Director of Curriculum Development: email: dquentel at cali.org.

Revised 04/03/2023