Connecticut Law Review helps members develop new skills

The Connecticut Law Review has only about 500 subscribers, but the importance of the journal for students involved in its publication goes far beyond its limited circulation.

“Law Review membership allows our members to be involved in the production of a scholarly journal, exposes our members to a diverse range of legal subjects, improves their technical writing skills, and allows them to meet and form friendships with a large number of students at the Law School,” says its current editor, Joseph Bernardi, a third-year law student.

Issues have articles written by outside contributors, as well shorter pieces called “notes” and “comments” written by UConn students who are members of the Review. The subjects of the articles and notes in recent issues have ranged from employment discrimination to judicial internationalism.

“The quality of the notes and comments are on par with any other article we publish; however due to intense competition among all authors, the opportunity for a student to secure publication in a top legal journal is low,” Bernardi says.

Although it is one publication, the Law Review has three formats:

• General interest. Articles in these issues are not solicited, but are chosen from approximately 1,000 submissions each year that are reviewed by a committee of student editors. This year, the Review will publish nine such articles.
• Fall symposium. This issue reports on the annual fall symposium, which examines a different legal topic each year.
• Commentary. Staff of the Review solicit a lead author to write on a subject, and solicit other authors to comment directly on the lead author’s article.

Run by Students

The Review was created in 1947, making it the oldest student-run organization at the Law School. Students organized a “Board of Student Editors” to contribute articles on recent court decisions to the Connecticut Bar Journal. This gradually expanded, and the Review became a separate publication in 1968. It began by publishing two issues a year, then four. This year it will publish five times.

“I probably spend at least 20 hours a week on Law Review-related work, but that time is often divided among two or three issues because the production schedule for each issue overlaps,” says managing editor Emily Gianquinto, who is responsible for assembly and production. “While I was reviewing proofs of issue one from the printer, I was reviewing edits from issue two and formatting articles for issue three to distribute to the executive editors.”

Becoming a member

The top six day students and top three evening students are invited to join the Law Review. Others may be invited based on their participation in the annual Inter-Journal Summer Write-On Competition, in which students are given a topic to write about. The submissions are scored by the current editorial board of each of UConn’s four law journals.

Another way to join is through the Supplemental Writing Competition that takes place each semester. Students submit an original article, which is then reviewed by members of the editorial board; if the consensus is that the article is of publishable quality, an offer will be made to the author to join the Law Review.