Brooklyn Law School: Students

August 21, 2008

J O U R N A L S

Brooklyn Law Review | Brooklyn Journal of International Law | Journal of Law & Policy

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial and Commercial Law | Students Home

General Information | Member Information | Submissions | Open Note Policy
Current Issue | Past Issues

The Open Note Competition is an alternative way to become a member of the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law. The Competition’s procedures are described below and must be followed to the letter. Students with questions or concerns about the Open Note Competition may contact the Journal at (718) 780-0663 or corplj@brooklaw.edu.

Eligibility

Brooklyn Law School students are eligible to apply for membership on the Journal by submitting a note or comment any time prior to May 31 of the student's second year if a full-time student or the student's third year if a part-time student. This deadline is strictly enforced. Students must also be ranked within the top 75% of their class at the end of the prior Fall semester.

Levels of Membership

Because the Journal’s needs differ from year to year, participants in the Open Note Competition have the possibility of two levels of membership:

Membership only: The Journal offers the participant membership, but not the option to publish
Membership with publication: The Journal offers the participant membership and the option to publish in the Journal

Contents of a Student Note

To participate in the Competition, students must write a student note. A student note is a scholarly article that thoroughly analyzes and evaluates a timely legal issue related to business law. The note should be written in a clear concise manner and should have a clear statement of its thesis. Further, the body of the note should progress logically to its conclusion with appropriate headings and subheadings to guide the reader. All major assertions in the note must be substantiated by an authoritative source in the form of footnotes that cover a wide range of sources. Points raised in the text may be elaborated in the footnotes.

We strongly suggest that students submitting to the Open Note Competition peruse the student note sections in journals and law reviews for guidance.

Form of Submission

Type face and Margins: Notes must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins on all sides.
Length: the note should be no fewer than 25 pages and should not exceed 40 pages.
Citations: The note should have a title page and use footnotes rather than endnotes.
Copies: Students must submit three copies of their notes to the Editor-in-Chief.
Confidentiality: Do not write your name or contact information anywhere on your note. Instead, assign a nickname or number to yourself and place your name and contact information in an attached, sealed envelope with your nickname/number written on it; submit the envelope with your note.
Other requirements: Notes submitted must be in final form. Authors whose notes are deemed "Not Publishable” will not have an opportunity to revise or resubmit the Note. Students should indicate at the time of submission whether academic credit has already been, or will be, received for the submitted Note. Copies of the Note submitted to the Journal will not be returned to the student.

Note: Students submitting to the Competition should retain a copy of each source to which they cite. If the Journal accepts a student and gives them the option to publish, the student will eventually have to produce all sources cited.

Preemption Check

Students are responsible for conducting a preemption check of all other publications prior to submitting and writing their note. Successfully conducting a preemption check shall not in any manner whatsoever be construed as an advance acceptance of the student’s note. After a student’s note has been submitted to the Journal, it will be reviewed and a determination will be made as to whether the note is deemed publishable.

To conduct a West Law/LEXIS Preemption Check:

Access combined Law Reviews and Journal directory;
Do a full search for key words/variations relating to topic;
Scan articles containing keywords for content; scan footnotes for reference to other sources that might preempt;
Conduct a full search of all other publication directories that the student believes may unearth an already published article relating to his/her topic.

Review of Notes and Publishability Criteria

The Editor-in-Chief of the Journal will review submitted student notes and make membership/ publication decisions. As the volume of submissions varies from year to year, there is not a set date upon which students will be contacted.

In deciding whether a note is publishable, the Journal will evaluate the submission in the same manner it evaluates unsolicited articles submitted by non-BLS authors. The following factors will be considered: the originality of the note and the contribution it makes to legal scholarship; the thoroughness of the legal analysis of the note; the extent to which the note contains a logical and well-developed thesis; the clarity of the writing; and the amount of work required by the Journal staff to prepare the note for publication.

Duties and Responsibilities Accompanying Membership

Students receiving an offer of membership will have full staff responsibilities immediately upon their acceptance of membership. These responsibilities include weekly assignments from the Journal’s Managing Editor. Students will receive one credit upon successful completion of their journal responsibilities. Because students receiving membership through the Open Note Competition commence their responsibilities later than existing members, their obligation to the Journal may extend well into the summer. Students will also receive one credit for their note, regardless of whether it is published, provided they have not already received credit for the note.

This page last modified on: August 01, 2008.