The George Mason Law Review is a student-run academic journal that publishes four issues a year. Members select and edit scholarly articles written by professors and practitioners that greatly contribute to the field of legal scholarship. Members also have the opportunity to write a casenote or comment, a number of which are published in the Law Review. All first year students who have a desire to participate in this organization should prepare for both the challenges and the fulfillment of membership. The following list briefly outlines membership requirements and responsibilities:

The Write-On Competition

• Students who wish to become Candidate Members of the Law Review MUST participate in the annual Write-On Competition. The Write-On Competition packet is released shortly after the conclusion of spring finals in mid-May.

• Participants in the Write-On Competition write a short casenote using only the cases and articles in the packet. No other research is allowed. Participants also must complete a short editing exercise.

• The same casenote can be used for the George Mason Law Review, the Civil Rights Law Journal, the Journal of International Commercial Law, and the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy. For examples of previous student casenotes and comments, please see the Issues page of our website (http://www.georgemasonlawreview.org/issues).

• For information on the 2010 Write-on Competition, see our Write-On Info page.

Membership Selection

• The Write-On selection process is conducted anonymously. The Law Review will not know the identities of write-on submission authors until after they are selected.

• The Law Review can only extend offers of membership to students in the top half of the class at the end of their first year.

• The Law Review will select participants for candidate membership from two pools. The Law Review reads every submission in both Pools. Participants in the top 15% of the first-year class will comprise Pool 1. The best two-thirds of write-on entries from Pool 1 will be extended invitations to join the Law Review. Those not selected from Pool 1 will then have their entries included in Pool 2. The best entries from Pool 2 will be chosen as Candidate Members, and the number of offers from Pool 2 is at the discretion of the Review Committee.

• The Law Review extends membership offers to approximately thirty to thirty-five students each year. The Law Review extends offers in mid-July.

Candidate and Full Membership

• Candidate Members must complete a footnote editing assignment in mid-August and attend an orientation before the fall semester starts.

• Candidate Members do not become Full Members until they (1) write a casenote or comment of publishable quality; (2) complete all required spading assignments (footnote editing) and other journal work; and (3) complete a training program on writing a casenote or comment.

• Full Members have an opportunity to apply for positions on the Board of Editors in the spring. The new Board will be responsible for managing the Law Review the following year.

Transfer Students

• The Law Review holds a separate write-on competition in early July for interested transfer applicants.  Transfer student authors are judged solely on the submission of a short casenote or comment similar to that required for the first year Write-On Competition.

If you have any questions regarding this process, the Law Review, or membership in general, please contact the Editor-in-Chief at eic@georgemasonlawreview.org .