All Minnesota law students are invited to submit papers or articles they have written on a topic involving LAW AND SOCIAL JUSTICE. ALL TOPICS RELATED BROADLY TO LAW, LIBERTY, JUSTICE, AND EQUALITY ARE ELIGIBLE, WHETHER OR NOT RELATED TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS OR FEMINIST THEORY.
Submissions will be judged on the following criteria:
1. Significance: Does the work address an important legal and social issue of justice and equality?
2. Originality: Does the work make an original contribution to the topic? For example, does it reinterpret an issue, offer new solutions to a problem, or suggest new connections between areas of analysis? Does it draw on materials that shed new light on a topic? Does it offer a new perspective, solution, or approach to an issue?
3. Presentation: Is the scholarship factually accurate? Is the paper well written? Does the author address the issue using appropriate methodology, well designed to serve the author’s purpose? Does the paper display appropriate depth of research? Does the paper place its analysis appropriately in the scholarly field?
4. Persuasiveness: Does the paper present a cogent defense of the position taken? Does it give appropriate attention to competing views? Does the author’s argument persuade the reader?
5. Impact: Does the work present ideas that are applicable in practical contexts? Are the ideas useful to the educated reader?
The writer of the selected article or essay will be awarded a cash prize of $1,000.00 at MWL’s 45th Annual Meeting luncheon.
Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Submissions should be sent via e-mail to dpexa@mwlawyers.org.
Submissions should include:
1. A cover letter—separate from the paper or article being submitted—with the writer’s name, address, phone number, school of attendance and year in school, and a statement indicating whether the paper or article has been edited by or with the assistance of a third party (e.g., a teacher or law journal
editor).
2. In an accompanying, separate document, the paper or article submitted for the competition. This document must NOT include the student’s name, school, or other identifying information. Any identifying information must be deleted from the article’s title, cover page, header, footers, and footnotes before submitting the paper or article.
3. If the essay or article as submitted has been edited by or with the assistance of a third party, provide a detailed description of the editing process (for example, who provided the editing assistance, what changes were made as the result of the third party editing, how many drafts went through the editing process, etc.).
Note: failure to comply with the instructions for submission detailed above may result in disqualification of the paper from the competition.
Call the MWL office at 612/338-3205 with any questions. To be considered for the 2017 MWL Equal Justice Award, complete submissions must be received at MWL by Tuesday, February 28th, 2017 at 4:30 p.m.
http://www.mwlawyers.org/?page=AnnualAwards#Equal