Academic Legal Writing - Eugene Volokh [152]
To figure this out, just call or e-mail the competition up front and ask: “I'd like to submit my essay to you, but I also think I should submit it to the law reviews for publication, especially since your competition doesn't guarantee that the winner will be published. Would that disqualify me, or do you not mind it?”
E. Competitions That Solicit Published Pieces
Some competitions are described as open only to articles that have already been published. (Obviously, these competitions don't offer publication, unless for some unusual reason they want to republish an article that has already run elsewhere.)
If a competition is indeed described this way, call the organization and see whether it will also consider articles that have been accepted for publication, but not yet printed. Some competitions might in fact take this view: If they consider only published pieces because they want someone else to prescreen the works for quality, then it might not matter to them whether the article has already been printed, so long as it has been accepted.
In any event, if you're submitting to some such competition, just circulate the article to the law reviews, and once it's accepted or once it's published (whichever the competition requires) send it in to the competition.
F. Competitions That Solicit Unpublished Pieces
Some competitions are described as open only to pieces that have not already been published, even though the competitions don't themselves offer to publish the winner. Call them and check whether they mind pieces that have not yet been published, but that have been accepted for publication.
If a competition only rejects pieces that are already in print, then keep in mind that articles are generally published only nine months or more after they are circulated. So if, for instance, your article is done in January, the best time to submit the article to law journals is in March (see Part XXIII.A.3, p. 263), the competition deadline is in April, and the competition announces its results in July, don't delay the journal submission because of the competition—the article will remain unpublished for many months after the competition is done.
On the other hand, if the competition insists on articles that are neither published nor accepted for publication, then either skip the competition, or submit to it first and then submit to the law reviews only after the competition's results are announced. It's the honest thing to do, and it will avoid making possibly influential enemies.
XXV. GETTING ON LAW REVIEW
A. What Is a Law Review?
Academic legal articles are mostly published in student-edited journals. Students not only proofread, revise, and cite-check the articles in these journals, but also select which articles are published. This is a rare power by the standards of the academy—in nearly all other disciplines the journals are edited by professors—and it's a power that students should cherish.
There are some faculty-edited journals in law, and many are highly regarded: the Supreme Court Review and the Journal of Legal Studies are two examples. But these are the exception. Even among the most prestigious law journals, most are student-edited. (“Law review” and “law journal” are generally synonyms; there is no inherent difference between the two.)
Nearly every law school has a general-purpose journal, which generally bears the name of the school followed by “Law Review” or “Law Journal,” for instance the Hastings Law Journal at U.C. (Hastings) School of Law. Such journals publish articles on many legal topics. Many schools also have several specialty journals that focus on a particular topic, such as the UCLA Entertainment Law Review.
Students usually work on a law review for about two years, starting some time from the middle of their first year (more likely for specialty journals) to the start