The Yale Law Journal is excited to announce its first Student Essay Competition. The Competition is open to law students and recent law graduates nationwide. Up to three winners will be awarded a $300 cash prize. Winning submissions will be published in the Yale Law Journal Forum, YLJ’s online component. All Forum pieces are fully searchable and available on LexisNexis and Westlaw, as well as on our website.

Competition Topic: Emerging Issues in Law and Technology

The goal of this competition is for the next generation of legal scholars and practitioners to reflect on emerging legal problems and challenges. Submissions must thus focus on novel issues in law and technology, broadly conceived. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: artificial intelligence, bioethics, biotechnology, copyright, cybersecurity, digital speech, food and drug law, health law, Internet law, patent law, privacy, and surveillance. We welcome topics in other related areas as well, and hope to receive both clinical and academic submissions.

Eligibility and Submission Details

The competition is open to all current law students (JDs and LLMs from the Classes of 2018, 2019, and 2020) from any ABA-accredited American law school as well as recent graduates (JDs and LLMs from the Classes of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017). Each individual may submit only one (previously unpublished) Essay, and Essays may not be submitted to other law reviews during the judging period.

The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2017. Submissions must be no longer than 5,000 words, including footnotes. Essays must be submitted via the YLJ online submissions portal. Submissions should be uploaded in the “Yale Law Journal Forum Faculty & Practitioner Submission” category. A selection committee from Volume 127 of the Yale Law Journal will consider all submissions anonymously. Winners will be announced by November 10, 2017. Authors who submit winning Essays commit to publication in the Yale Law Journal Forum and agree to participate in our full six-to-eight week editing process. This process involves both structural and substantive suggestions, as well as sourceciting for content and adherence to Bluebook style.

Please submit Essays as either a Word document or PDF file. Your submission should be titled “YLJ Essay Competition - [ESSAY TITLE]” and include a header with “YLJ Essay Competition” in the main text of your document. To ensure blind review, please do not include any identifying information, including name, class year, or institution. If your Essay contains any identifying information, or has been submitted elsewhere, it will be disqualified.

Disbursement of the cash prize to each winner is subject to any applicable tax reporting and withholding requirements.

Questions about the Student Essay Competition should be directed to Meenu Krishnan, Executive Editor for Forum (meenakshi.krishnan@yale.edu). We look forward to reading your submissions!