Submitted archival papers must not be already published, accepted for publication, or in submission to a conference or workshop with published proceedings. However, simultaneous submissions are allowed when they are submitted in substantially expanded form to refereed journals (including student-run law reviews). For example, authors of papers who intend to submit them to law reviews in the February 2026 window may submit 15-page archival versions of those papers to CSLAW’26.  Similarly, authors may simultaneously submit 15-page papers to CSLAW’26 and substantially expanded versions of those papers to journals in computer science and other disciplines.

Submitted non-archival papers must not have been published elsewhere more than two years prior to the symposium.

All submitted papers will be evaluated based on their merits, particularly the extent to which their contributions are truly interdisciplinary. For papers that might raise ethical concerns, authors are expected to convince reviewers that proper procedures (such as IRB approval or responsible disclosure) have been followed and that due diligence has been done to minimize potential harms.

Submitted papers may be rejected, at the discretion of the PC chairs, for being out of scope. Authors who have questions about whether their papers are in scope are encouraged to ask the PC chairs in advance.

Due to the significant variation in scholarly methods and exposition norms across the computing and legal communities, the review process will be single-blind. Reviewers will be cautioned to avoid any biases resulting from author identity.

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the symposium, authors will be provided with an opportunity to write brief responses after receiving PC reviews but before final decisions are made. These are not meant to be extended debates about the papers; instead, they are meant to help the PC appreciate the nature of a submission’s contributions in cases where the initial reviews may have applied different disciplinary standards than expected.

Full papers

Full papers should be submitted through the symposium submission management system at https://cslaw26.hotcrp.com/. Submissions will open on September 2, 2025.

Authors may choose to submit papers for consideration as archival or non-archival papers. Archival papers will be published in the conference proceedings; non-archival papers will not. Archival submissions should be formatted using the ACM Small single-column template (available in LaTeX and Word) and should consist of up to 15 pages (excluding references and appendices). Formatting instructions for the final versions of archival papers will be provided after acceptance.

Nonarchival submissions may be formatted using any discipline-appropriate template and may be of any length. (Authors are cautioned that, to facilitate PC evaluation, the contributions of their submissions should be clear within the first 15 pages.) The PC may in its discretion choose to offer authors who have submitted an archival paper a non-archival presentation. Authors of accepted nonarchival presentations will be asked to provide a one-page version summarizing their work for publication in the symposium proceedings. Formatting instructions will be provided after acceptance.

Authors of papers that have been accepted on the non-archival track may request to switch to the archival track, provided they meet the archival restrictions on publication elsewhere. These requests will be approved at the discretion of the program committee.

Formatted templates for archival submissions

Options and templates are available for both Microsoft Word and LaTeX users. Submissions should be in single-column format. Overleaf also hosts an online version of the template.

If using LaTeX, please use the template given in sample-acmsmall.tex
when downloading the latest version of the ACM LaTeX documents or on Overleaf. The following should appear near the top of your .tex document \documentclass[manuscript,screen,review]{acmart}.

Important update on ACMs new open access publishing model for 2026 ACM Conferences!

Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 2,600 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 76%).

Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a financial waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review the https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy-on-discretionary-open-access-apc-waivers.  Keep in mind that waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM.

Understanding that this change could present financial challenges, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy for 2026 to ease the transition and allow more time for institutions to join ACM Open. The subsidy will offer:

• $250 APC for ACM/SIG members
• $350 for non-members

This represents a 65% discount, funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to help advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period.

This temporary subsidized pricing will apply to all conferences scheduled for 2026.

Posters and lightning talks

Submission instructions for posters and lightning talks will be provided at a later date.

Poster submissions should consist of a one-page summary of the work to be presented. The summary can include links to work published elsewhere or projects available online but should include at least a one-paragraph abstract explaining the current status of the work and its principal contributions. Suitable topics include (but are not limited to) very recent or partial results, work in progress, open problems, and work published elsewhere. Accepted posters will be displayed during designated poster sessions. In addition, authors will be invited to give brief (3-minute) lightning talks summarizing the work.

Proceedings information

Symposium proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library in digital form only, and the papers will be accessible for free via an ACM OpenTOC posted on the symposium website. At least one author of each accepted full paper will need to present the paper (either in person or remotely). The timing and format of presentations will be detailed closer to the date of the symposium. Remote participation for posters and lightning talks will not be supported.