The Southern Region Black Law Students Association (SRBLSA) Law Journal formally announces its call for Notes, Articles, and Comments to be published in its Fourth Volume.

 

We are currently seeking submissions to be published in Volume IV.  The theme is "From the White House to My House:  Changing the Color of Legal Discourse through the Emergence of the Black Perspective."  We encourage candidates for publication to submit articles, notes, or comments that discuss legal issues that affect the African-American Community generally.  In order to be considered for publication, all works should be submitted by December 1, 2009.  Although we will accept meritable submissions after that date on a case-by-case basis, complying with this deadline will allow the Editorial staff to help authors flesh out their ideas and assist their writing process with suggestions and recommendations.

 

Why should I submit to the SRBLSA Law Journal?

This has been an exciting year for the SRBLSA Law Journal.  It has been a year of great expansion and change.  The Journal, which is the representative Black voice for law students and practitioners living in the South, is now able to receive submissions from all races, ethnicities and locations from across the country!  We are able to expand the Journal  because it has attracted a great academic and professional audience in the Black community.  The 2008-2009 Journal will be published on Westlaw, published authors are eligible to receive awards, and submissions may satisfy writing requirements for member Law Schools. Additionally, the 2009-2010 Editorial Board will host the Inaugural SRBLSA Law Journal  Symposium, on January 16, 2010, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during the combined convention of the Southern and Rocky Mountain Regions of the National Black Law Students Association.   Those authors selected for publication in Volume IV will be invited to present their work at our first Symposium!

 

 

 

Final drafts can be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief directly at, harriet.huell@gmail.com, or via the electronic submission page on the SRBLSA Law Journal

website, available at http://www.srblsalawjournal.org/electronic_submissions.html. For more information on the SRBLSA Law Journal, or its Volume IV publication, please visit www.srblsalawjournal.org.

 

 

 

Volume IV of the SRBLSA Law Journal  will accept author submissions from attorneys, professors, judges, and law students nationwide. 

A prospective author need not be a BLSA member, though BLSA members are strongly encouraged to submit to the Journal.

 

The criteria for submissions is as follows:


1.) Topics: You are free to write on any topic involving legal issues that impact African-Americans. We ask that your article be legally and logically sound; 15-35 pages in length, including footnotes; and we also ask that you strictly comply with the standard Bluebook form of citation. Additionally, please submit a cover letter and resume (or CV) with your article.


2.) Length: The article should be 15-35 pages in length (this includes footnotes).


3.) Footnotes: There is not a footnote to paragraph ratio, per se, but a good rule of thumb is that almost every sentence in your paper should be supported by some authoritative source, unless it's your own conclusion. A paper 15-35 pages in length should contain between 100 and 300 footnotes.


4.) Symposium Details: If you are selected for publication, you will be invited to present your work at the inaugural SRBLSA Law Journal Symposium, January 16, 2010, at 11:30 a.m., during the SRBLSA Regional Convention, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While SRBLSA does not pay for travel, I will write a letter to the Dean of your law school, or your employer, requesting funds to support you in this endeavor.


5.) Deadlines: The deadline to submit an abstract of your article is October 15, 2009, and the deadline for submitting a completed article is December 1, 2009.  We are accepting completed products immediately.


Publication decisions will be made no later than December 20, 2009.


If you would like to discuss possible topics, or have a paper already written that you are thinking of submitting, feel free to contact the Editor-in-Chief, Harriet Huell, at harriet.huell@gmail.com, and she'd be more than happy to discuss this with you in further detail.

 

 

 

To be considered for publication final drafts must be submitted on December 1, 2009. Electronic format is preferred.  Although we will accept meritable drafts after that date on a case-by-case basis, complying with this deadline allows the Editorial staff to better assist authors with suggestions and recommendations.The Journal is limited in the number of articles and notes it can publish. Once we reach that limit, no exceptions can be made.

 

NOTE: One-third of the cases mentioned in the submission must have been decided between August 1, 2002, and August 1, 2007. 

 

EMAIL TO:

Harriet L. Huell

Editor-in-Chief, SRBLSA Law Journal Vol. IV

harriet.huell@gmail.com

-OR-

Use our electronic submission page.

 

Once a submission is approved for publication, each author will be sent a formal packet with all pertinent documents and further instructions for the writing process. Each author must commit to meeting very rigid guidelines to ensure a successful and timely publication. If selected, students and professionals are committing to complete your submission by a strict deadline.  Failure of students to do so may be considered a violation of their respective institution's Honor Code.

 

 

Each work will undergo several rounds of editing. After the first round, if the Editorial Board does not believe the work does not meet expected standards, the Journal  reserves the right to return the work to the author and rescind the offer to publish.

 

FOR STUDENTS:

Note & Comment Submission Qualifications:

    1. What is a Note and Comment?  Notes and Comments are written by law students and typically shorter than Article submissions. A Note is an analysis of the holding or issue in a specific court case, while a Comment focuses on either legislation or on a more general legal theory or principle.
    2. Basic Formatting:
      1. Word Limit/Page Limit: No less than 10,000 words OR 15-35 pages, including footnotes.
      2. Text in 12-point Times New Roman style font, double-spaced with 1" margins on all sides
      3. Footnotes in 10-point font formatted with the 18th edition of the Bluebook
    3. Satisfy your School’s Writing Requirement?  Each law school has its own formatting criteria (page numbers, etc.) to satisfy their writing requirement. As such, the Journal will accept notes with the formatting criteria required by your school. Should the journal submission be used for this purpose, please contact and notify the Editor-in-Chief so that a notification letter can be sent to the dean of the law school.

     

    FOR PROFESSIONALS:

    Article Submission Qualifications:

      1. What is an Article? Articles are written by law professors, judges and legal practitioners. They serve an important purpose in that they express the ideas of legal experts with regard to the direction the law should take in certain areas. Such writings have proven influential in the development of the law and have frequently been cited as persuasive authority by the United States Supreme Court and other courts throughout the United States.
      2. Basic Formatting:
        1. Word Limit/Page Limit: No less than 10,000 words OR at least 15 pages, including footnotes
        2. Text in 12-point Times New Roman style font, double-spaced with 1" margins on all sides
        3.  Footnotes in 10-point font formatted with the 18th edition of the Bluebook

       

      NOTE:

       

      Subscribers of the Social Science Research Network are now able to electronically submit articles to the SRBLSA Law Journal for publication through SSRN's eSubmission service.