Writing Publishable Articles
Originality and Contribution to the Legal Field
 Legal writing should have a goal and recommend a means to achieve that goal
 Articles should share new ideas about law with the legal community
 Successful scholarly legal writing says something innovative
 Be sure to run a thorough preemption check on your topic before you begin research
Importance of Topic
 Writing should make a claim that is novel, non-obvious, useful, sound and seen by the
reader as such
 Topics should either:
o analyze conflicting or transitional case law and resolve the conflict;
o argue that a legal rule is unfair or inequitable
o analyze proposed or recently enacted legislation with comments and criticism
o apply insights from another field in an effort to show how the legal issue can be
better dealt with
o explain the legal history of a rule or institution
Quality
 Use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation and avoid awkward and verbose sentences
 Writing should read smoothly and provide concise, thoughtful and authoritative analysis
Thoroughness
 Consider all sides of the issue – articulate your position forcefully but treat contrary
arguments seriously and respectfully
 Read and cite original sources
 Continuously update your research during writing and before submission
Well Written
 Writers should avoid redundancy
 Articles should take a clear position on the issue addressed and discuss and resolve the
relevant issue
 To persuade the reader, answer discrete questions fully rather than broad questions
shallowly
 Ideas should show that you grasp the subject matter and should be presented in logical
sequence with coherent paragraph organization and sentence structure
Currency
 Your topic should be current and relevant to the present legal climate
 If the article proposes something it should be feasible in the near future
Footnotes
 The text and footnotes should support each other
 Footnotes should be used to support, expand and clarify
 Footnotes should be of use to the reader and should not make up for textual inadequacies
 Readers should not have to refer to the footnote in order to understand the text
Bibliography of Scholarly Legal Writing Resources
Christian C. Day, In Search of the Read Footnote: Techniques for Writing Legal Scholarship and
Having it Published, 6 LEG. WRITING 229 (2000).
Jessica Clark & Kristen Murray, Scholarly Writing: Ideas, Examples, and Execution 2d ed.
(2012). Reserve: KF250 .C528 2012.
Darby Dickerson, The Publication Process: Citation Frustrations -- And Solutions, 30 STETSON
L. REV. 477 (2000).
Elizabeth Fajans & Mary R. Falk, SCHOLARLY WRITING FOR LAW STUDENTS: SEMINAR PAPERS,
LAW REVIEW NOTES, AND LAW REVIEW COMPETITION PAPERS, 4th ed. (2011). Reserve:
KF250 .F35 2011.
Eugene Volokh, ACADEMIC LEGAL WRITING: LAW REVIEW ARTICLES, STUDENT NOTES, AND
SEMINAR PAPERS, 4d ed. (2010). Reserve: KF250 .V65 2010
Jason P. Nance & Dylan J. Steinberg, The Law Review Article Selection Process: Results from a
National Study at http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=988847.
Leah M. Christensen & Julie Oseid, Navigating the Law Review Article Selection Process: An
Empirical Study of Those with All the Power—Student Editors, 59 UNIV. OF ST. THOMAS L. REV.
465 (2008).
Mary Barnard Ray & Barbara Cox, BEYOND THE BASICS, A TEXT FOR ADVANCED LEGAL
WRITING, 2d ed. (2003).
Mikhail Koulikov Indexing and Full-Text Coverage of Law Review Articles in Non-Legal
Databases, An Initial Study, 102 Law Lib. J. 39 (2010), available at http://www.aallnet.org/mainmenu/Publications/llj/LLJ-Archives/Vol-102/pub_llj_v102n01/2010-02.pdfb .
Nancy Levit, Lawrence Duncan MacLachan et al., Submission of Law Student Articles for
Publication, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1656395
Publishing in Law Reviews and Journals, Harvard Law School Library,
http://libguides.law.harvard.edu/content.php?pid=68282&sid=512114
Richard Delgado, How to Write a Law Review Article, 20 U.S.F. L. REV. 445 (1986).
AP
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