Brooklyn Law School: Students

May 14, 2008

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The open note competition provides a way for students who are not a member of Brooklyn Law Review or any other Brooklyn Law School journal to have their scholarly work, known as a Note, published. Those students whose Notes are accepted as publishable before their final year are eligible for membership on Law Review.

Students are strongly encouraged to consult with the Executive Board of the Brooklyn Law Review about their note topic before they begin working on it. We use the following procedure to ensure that a student’s topic is not preempted. Students should submit their topic in writing to the Managing Editor. An Executive Board member will then review the topic to ensure that staff members or outside authors currently writing for the Law Review are not already working on a piece addressing the student’s topic. The Law Review will notify the student after it has conducted this internal preemption check.

Students are responsible for conducting a preemption check of all other publications. To conduct a preemption check, students should consult the directors below entitled “West Law/LEXIS Preemption Check.” 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 Brooklyn Law Review, it will be reviewed and a determination will be made as to whether the Note is deemed publishable.

West Law/LEXIS Preemption Check

Access combined Law Reviews and Journals 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.

Contents of a Student Note
A Note is a scholarly article that thoroughly analyzes and evaluates a legal issue. The Note should be timely, and it should comprehensively deal with the topic discussed. Clear and concise writing is essential. The Note must contain an analysis section that is scholarly, thorough, and original. The introductory section of the Note should contain a clear statement of the thesis. The body of the Note should logically progress to a conclusion, with appropriate headings and subheadings. Please feel free to look through old law reviews and journals to gain an idea of exactly how a proper Note might look.

All major assertions in the Note must be substantiated by an authoritative source. The citations should cover a wide range of sources. The citations must be contained in footnotes that must be in proper blue book form. Points raised in the text may be elaborated in the footnotes.

Publishability Criteria
In deciding whether a Note is publishable, the Brooklyn Law Review will evaluate the submission in the same manner it evaluates unsolicited articles submitted by non-Brooklyn Law School 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 Law Review staff to prepare the Note in publishable form.

Review of Notes
The notes are due January 29, 2007 and will be read by the Editor-in-Chief. Students whose notes have been deemed publishable will be contacted.

Acceptance of Notes
If the student’s Note is accepted as publishable, the student must be available to work with the Law Review staff to prepare the Note for publication. This requirement applies even if the student has graduated after the Note has been accepted.

If the Note is accepted as publishable before July 1 of the student’s final year, he or she will be eligible to become a staff member of Law Review. As a staff member, the student will be required to do office hours and source checks. Upon the successful completion of staff member duties, the following year the student may run for an editorial board of senior staff position, providing the student is still enrolled at the law school.

The student will receive one credit for work done as a staff member. The student will receive two credits for the accepted Note so long as the student has not previously received credit for work on the Note and has made no arrangements to receive credit in the future for the Note. If the student continues to work on Law Review for a second year and is elected to an editorial board or senior staff position, he or she will receive two or three credits, depending on the position held.

Although most accepted Notes are published, it is possible that circumstances may prevent an accepted Note from being published (i.e. subsequent preemption). Failure to publish an accepted Note will not deprive the student of Law Review membership.

Form of Submission
All Notes must be submitted in typed form, double-spaced, with one inch margins on all sides. Students should submit two copies. Students should indicate at this time whether academic credit has already been, or will be, received for the submitted Note. If the Note is accepted for publication, the student is responsible for providing a copy of the Note on a computer disk in Microsoft Word format. The student will also be responsible for providing copies of all the sources cited in the Note.

Time of Submission
Notes may be submitted at any time during the student’s second, third, or fourth year. This year’s deadline is January 29, 2007.

This page last modified on: October 16, 2007.