Advice on Scholarly Writing for Law Students
Scholarly Writing for Law Students by Call Number: KF 250 .F35 2011ISBN: 9781683282075Publication Date: 2017-03-24This book fills an important niche in legal-writing literature by teaching law students how to write scholarly papers for seminars, law reviews, and law-review competitions and how to have their work recognized.
Academic Legal Writing by Call Number: KF 250 .V65ISBN: 9781634598880Publication Date: 2016-02-19Designed to help law students write and publish articles, this text provides detailed instructions for every aspect of the law school writing, research, and publication process. Topics covered include law review articles and student notes, seminar term papers, how to shift from research to writing, cite-checking others' work, publishing, and publicizing written works.
Circuit Splits
- U.S. Law Week - Circuit SplitsA monthly report of circuit splits via Bloomberg Law
- Sunday SplitsBy the Emory Law School Supreme Court Advocacy Program.
Sample Westlaw and Lexis searches for topics that are a "first impression" to a court or "beyond the scope" of a law review article:
- Courts of Appeals - Circuit Split: adv: circuit /s split and HE(copyright) and DA(aft2010)
- see copyright example on Westlaw
- Courts of Appeals - First Impression: adv: (issue or question or matter) /s ("first impression" or novel) & ATLEAST5(copyright) & da(aft 2010)
- see copyright example on Westlaw
- Law Reviews - Beyond the Scope: "beyond the scope" /s (note or article or comment) & ATLEAST5(copyright) & da(aft 2010)
- see copyright example on Westlaw
Preemption Check
- Preemption Checking (from Yale Law Library)This page describes the process for determining whether your paper topic (or your treatment of the topic) has already been published by someone else.
- Preemption Checking (from University of Texas Law Library)Are you writing a seminar paper, law review article, or considering what to publish in a law review you edit? Then it's time for a preemption check! The goal of a preemption check is to confirm a law review article's originality and this guide lists the main resources to search.
More Information
The A-Z list of law-related databases available to OU Law students and faculty is available here.
Call for Papers
- Legal Scholarship Blog - Call for PapersWhen law journals and other organizations solicit papers and conference presentations on specific topics, they are listed. This is one way to determine hot topics in the profession.
Additional Guides for Locating Paper Topics
- Harvard Law Library Guide to Finding a Paper TopicThis guide is designed for students who would like to write a long(er) research paper and are looking for ideas on how to get started and find a topic.
- Bloomberg Law - Law Review & JournalsThis page has links to Circuit Splits, Supreme Court Today Tracker, Hot Legal Topics and News. (Use your Bloomberg Law Login)
- Westlaw's Guide to Law Review ResearchThis student guide for law review and journal research shows you how to use Westlaw databases and
services to perform a number of tasks, such as selecting a topic for a law review or journal article - Guide to Finding Paper Topics (University of Washington Law Library)Writing for & Publishing in Law Reviews: Finding & Developing Topics by Mary Whisner
- Guide to Finding Paper Topics (USF Law Library)Techniques and sources for identifying new or unsettled issues that could be the basis for a good law school paper or law review comment or note.
Searching for Novel Issues
- Searching Tips (from USF Law Library)Use the sites and techniques on this page to discover significant and unresolved legal issues
Google Search - Hot Topics in Criminal Law
Google Search - Circuit Splits
Boolean Search Techniques for Paper Topics
- Searching for Paper Topics in Westlaw by Deborah K. HackersonLaw students struggling with defining and narrowing a paper topic should consider looking at an issue where there is a circuit split. Here are a couple of tips and resources for finding those topics.
- Finding Circuit Splits (from USF Law Library)To find circuit splits and jurisdictional conflicts, try using: Bloomberg BNA's USLW; blogs; case law; legal news sources; Am. Jur. 2d & ALR; and (for state statutes) the National Survey of State Laws.