The Yale Law Journal is excited to announce its seventh annual Student Essay Competition. The Journal’s Student Essay Competition challenges the next generation of legal scholars and practitioners to reflect on emerging legal problems. The Competition is open to current law students and recent law-school graduates nationwide. Up to three winners will be awarded a $300 cash prize. Winning submissions will be published in the Yale Law Journal Forum, the Journal’s online component. All Forum Essays are fully searchable and available on LexisNexis, Westlaw, and our website.
Competition Topic: Emerging Issues in Law and the Family
This year, we invite submissions focusing on novel developments in the law as a result of shifting social norms, public policy, and legal developments concerning the family, broadly understood. We encourage submissions on a range of topics, including family law; children and the Constitution; immigration law’s effect on families; parental rights in education; sexual orientation and gender identity; abortion, childbirth and family planning; elder law; domestic violence, and policy proposals that bear on the family. We welcome topics in related areas as well, and we hope to receive both clinical and academic submissions.
Eligibility and Submission Details
The competition is open to all current law students and recent law school graduates (JDs and LLMs from the Classes of 2019-2026) from any ABA-accredited law school. Each individual may submit only one piece. Submissions must be previously unpublished Essays and may not be submitted to other publications during the competition period.
The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2023 at 5pm ET. Submissions must be no shorter than 4,000 words and no longer than 8,000 words, including footnotes.