Duties of Membership

All Journal members are responsible for completing work in three areas: writing, editing, and administration. In order to publish a Journal of the highest quality in a timely fashion, all staff members must complete their assignments to the best of their abilities and on time. The Journal awards credit hours on a Pass/Fail basis in consideration of the following:

1. Writing: Space in each issue of the Journal is reserved for student writings. Student writings take two forms- Notes and Comments. A comment is a piece based upon a recent case that substantially advances an evolving area of law, departs from precedent, or conflicts with other jurisdictions on the same legal issue. A Note, although it is often based upon recent cases, is a discussion and critique of a narrow yet significant area of law. A Comment is generally 12-15 pages in length, in contrast to 20-25 pages for a Note. Journal members must complete one Comment and, if not selected for the Editorial Board, one Note that are "ready for publication" in order to fulfill the writing requirement of staff membership. The "ready for publication" standard is more stringent than the "publishable" standard for the write-on program. The former standard entails thorough editing and revision completed by the author.

2. Editing: Editing of Articles, Comments, and Notes which have been selected for publication is an extremely important responsibility of all Journal staff members. All staff members are expected to do a Source & Cite Edit on a minimum of two written works during each school year of membership.

3. Administrative Work: Staff members must devote two hours per week for administrative work such as preparation of manuscripts for the printing process and operation of the blog.