Law-Review Award

Overview

Since 1987, Scribes has presented an annual award for the best student-written article in a law review or journal. Once we receive all the submissions, we send them to law professors for an initial judging. Once that group has selected the top 10 or so articles, they go to the Law-Review-Award committee. They read each article, deliberate, and choose a winner.

The professors and the committee members judge each article on these four criteria:

  • Quality of writing: The writing should be clean, direct, and engaging. /50
  • Topic: The topic should be timely and interesting. /20
  • Research: The research should be thorough, showing a passion for the topic, not just superficial research. /20
  • Footnotes: The article should have few to no talking footnotes. /10

Professor Joseph Kimble, longtime Scribes member and legal-writing guru, wrote detailed criteria for writing law-review articles that are clear, succinct, and forceful — part of Scribes mission. You may download his criteria here.

The submission window for the 2023-2024 award has closed. Nominations for the 2025 Best Law-Review Award (2023-2024 School Year) will be open soon. Please check back for updates. For more information, please contact us at scribeslegalwriters@gmail.com.

Recipients

2024 First Place Winner Christopher A.G. LoCascio, The Healthcure System: A Regional Accountable Care Model to Remedy Healthcare’s Pricing Problem, 96 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1251 (2023).

2024 Second Place Winner Karen J. Kukla, Direct to Consumer or Direct to All: Home DNA Tests and Lack of Privacy Regulations in the United States, 13 IP Theory 31 (2023).

2023 Co-Winner Seth Montgomery, ICRA’S Exclusionary Rule, 102 B.U. L. Rev. 2101 (2022).

2023 Co-Winner Claire Newfeld, Indian Boarding School Deaths and the Federal Tort Claims Act: A Route to a Remedy.

2022     Mona Alsaidi, Legally White, Effectively Othered: Recognizing and Investing in Arab American Communities, 94 Temple L. Rev. 99 (2021).

2021     Ryan Deal, It’s Five O’Clock Everywhere: A Framework for the Modernization of Time, 98 Wash. U. L. Rev. 911 (2021).

2020    Mary E. Marshall, Miller v. Alabama and the Problem of Prediction, 119 Colum. L. Rev. 1633 (2019).​

2019     Joseph DeMott, Rethinking Ashe v. Swenson from an Originalist Perspective, 71 Stan. L. Rev. 411 (2019).

2018     Julie Lynn Rooney, Going Postal: Analyzing the Abuse of Mail Covers Under the Fourth Amendment, 70 Vand. L. Rev. 1627 (2017).​

2017     Allen Cook Barr, Guardians of Your Galaxy S7: Encryption Backdoors and the First Amendment, 101 Minn. L. Rev. 301 (2016).

​2016     Wesley Sze, Did X Mark the Spot? Brand X and the Scope of Agency Overrides of Judicial Decisions, 68 Stan. L. Rev. 235 (January 2016).

2015     Alexander J. Kasner, National Security Leaks and Constitutional Duty, 67 Stan. L. Rev. 241 (2015).

2014     Nicholas S. Brod, Rethinking a Reinvigorated Right to Assemble, 63 Duke L.J. 155 (2013).

2013     Kyle La Rose, The Injury-in-Fact Barrier to Initiative Proponent Standing: How Article III Might Prevent Federal Courts from Enforcing Direct Democracy, 44 Ariz. St. L.J. 1717 (2012).

2012     Michael Vincent, Computer-Managed Perpetual Trusts, 51 Jurimetrics J. 399 (2011).

2011     D. Cody Huffaker, A New Type of Commandeering:  The Bypass Clause of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Stimulus Package), 42 Ariz. St. L.J. 1055 (2010).

2010     Michael Wagner, Warrantless Wiretapping, Retroactive Immunity, and the Fifth Amendment, 78 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 204 (2009).

2009     Michelle Renee Shamblin, Silencing Chicken Little: Options for School Districts After Parents Involved, 69 La. L. Rev. 219 (2008).

2008     Katherine A. Ritts, The Constitutionality of “Let Them Rest in Peace” Bills: Can Governments Say “Not Today, Fred” to Demonstrations at Funeral Ceremonies?, 58 Syracuse L. Rev. 137 (2007).

2007     Kevin Trowel, Divided by Design: Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Intelligent Design, and Civic Education, 93 Geo. L.J. 855 (2007).

2006     Amanda L. Morgan, U.S. Officials’ Vulnerability to “Global Justice”: Will Universal Jurisdiction over War Crimes Make Traveling for Pleasure Less Pleasurable?, 57 Hastings L.J. 423 (2005).

2005     Jeremiah Kelman, E-Nuisance: Unsolicited Bulk E-Mail at the Boundaries of Common Law Property Rights, 78 S. Cal. L. Rev. 363 (2004).

2004     Catherine Carroll, Section Five Overbreadth: The Facial Approach to Adjudicating Challenges Under Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment, 101 Mich. L. Rev. 1026 (2003).

2003     Janet Dean Gertz, The Purloined Personality: Consumer Profiling in Financial Services, 39 San Diego L. Rev. 943 (2002).

2002     Michael E. Horwin, “War on Cancer”:  Why Does the FDA Deny Access to Alternative Cancer Treatments?, 38 Cal. W. L. Rev. 189 (2001).

2001     John Cocchi Day, Retelling the Story of Affirmative Action: Reflections on a Decade of Federal Jurisprudence in the Public Workplace, 89 Cal. L. Rev. 59 (2001).

2000     Stephan J. Schlegelmilch, Ghost of the Holocaust: Holocaust Victim Fine Arts Litigation and a Statutory Application of the Discovery Rule, 50 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 87 (1999).

1999     Michael J. Mazza, Should Clergy Hold the Priest-Penitent Privilege?, 82 Marq. L. Rev. 171 (1998).

1998     Mary M. Sheridan, In re Fauziya Kasinga: The United States Has Opened Its Doors to Victims of Female Genital Mutilation, 71 St. John’s L. Rev. 433 (1997).

1997     Peter D. Blumberg, From “Publish or Perish” to “Profit or Perish”: Revenues from University Technology Transfer and the § 501(c)(3) Tax Exemption, 145 U. Pa. L. Rev. 89 (1996).

1996     Igor Kirman, Standing Apart to Be a Part: The Precedential Value of Supreme Court Concurring Opinions, 95 Colum. L. Rev. 2083 (1995).

1995     Edith L. Pacillo, Getting a Feminist Foot in the Courtroom Door: Media Liability for Personal Injury Caused by Pornography, 28 Suffolk U.L. Rev. 123 (1994).

1994     Dierdre M. Smith, Confronting Silence: The Constitution, Deaf Criminal Defendants, and the Right to Interpretation During Trial, 46 Me. L. Rev. 87 (1994).

1993     Matthew Pawa, When the Supreme Court Restricts Constitutional Rights, Can Congress Save Us? An Examination of Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, 141 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1029 (1993).

1992     Brendan Linehan Shannon, The Federal Magistrates Act: A New Article III Analysis for a New Breed of Judicial Officer, 33 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 253 (1991).

1991     Allison Hartwell Eid, Private Party Immunities to Section 1983 Suits, 57 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1323 (1990).

1990     Beverly Ray Burlingame, Commercialization in Fetal-Tissue Transplantation: Steering Medical Progress to Ethical Cures, 68 Tex. L. Rev. 213 (1989).

1989     David J. Gerber, Rethinking the Monopolist’s Duty to Deal: A Legal and Economic Critique of the Doctrine of “Essential Facilities,” 74 Va. L. Rev. 1069 (1988).

1988     Donald M. Levy, Jr. & Debra Jean Duncan, Judicial Review of Administrative Rulemaking and Enforcement Discretion: The Effect of a Presumption of Unreviewability, 55 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 596 (1987).

1987     Paul R.Q. Wolfson, Is a Presidential Item Veto Constitutional?, 96 Yale L.J. 838 (1987).