The Yale Law Journal is excited to announce its second annual Student Essay Competition. The Competition is open to law students and recent 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 Essays are fully searchable and available on LexisNexis and Westlaw, as well as on our website. Winning Essays from last year are available on our website.

Competition Topic: Emerging Issues in Health Law

The goal of this competition is for the next generation of legal scholars and practitioners to reflect on emerging legal problems and challenges. This year, submissions must focus on novel issues in health law, broadly conceived. Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following: bioethics, biotechnology, decriminalization of controlled substances, food law, global health, healthcare legislation, law and the opioid crisis, medical malpractice, and pharmaceutical regulation. 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 and recent graduates (JDs and LLMs from the Classes of 2014-2021) from any ABA-accredited American law school. Each individual may submit only one previously unpublished Essay, and Essays may not be submitted to other law reviews during the competition period.

The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2018. 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 128 of the Yale Law Journal will consider all submissions anonymously. Winners will be announced by November 16, 2018. 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 Jordan Goldberg and Aaron Roper, Managing Editors (jordan.r.goldberg@yale.edu; aaron.roper@yale.edu). We look forward to reading your submissions!