California Criminal Law Journal Writing Competition

2013 COMPETITION FOR STUDENT PAPERS IN CRIMINAL LAW AND/OR CRIMINAL PROCEDURE 
 
The Criminal Law Section of the State Bar of California is pleased to announce its Fifth Annual Competition for Student Papers in Criminal Law and/or Criminal Procedure 

PRIZES:
 
GRAND PRIZE
♦ $1000 cash prize
♦ The Grand Prize –winning paper will be published in the Criminal Law Journal, the official quarterly publication of the Criminal Law Section of the State Bar of California
♦ One-year student membership in the Criminal Law Section 
 

THREE HONORABLE MENTION PRIZES
♦ $300 cash prize
♦ Each of the papers awarded Honorable Mention status will be published in the Criminal Law Journal, the official quarterly publication of the Criminal Law Section of the State Bar of California
♦ One-year student membership in the Criminal Law Section 


ELIGIBILITY 
To be eligible for consideration, the paper must be written solely by a student enrolled in law school at the time the author submits a paper to this Competition.   
 

CONTEST RULES 
The paper must pertain to criminal law and/or to criminal procedure, with a particular focus on contemporary issues of concern in the State of California.  The paper should be original and scholarly.  It should be appropriately and carefully annotated to reflect the authorities that support the author’s opinions and findings, and upon which the author otherwise relies.
   
Papers should be between 1,500 and 4,000 words in length, including any citations, and should follow the citation style of The Blue Book: A Uniform System of Citation.  Papers that have previously been published in a book, journal, magazine, or newspaper are not eligible.
  
Papers submitted to the Competition must be in Word format and sent by e-mail attachment to each of the Criminal Law Journal co-editors:  

Anne Perry ([email protected]), Decio Rangel, Jr. (DecioRangelLaw.com), and Lani Biafore ([email protected]).

Papers submitted to the 2013 Criminal Law Section Student Paper Competition must be e-mailed no later than midnight, February 28, 2013.  Submissions must be accompanied by an e-mail cover letter verifying the author’s current law school enrollment and authorizing the Criminal Law Section of the State Bar to publish the paper in the Criminal Law Journal.  


JUDGING
The papers will be judged on their originality and informational value, as well as the quality of the author’s legal research, writing and analysis.  The decision of the judges is final.  Papers must be of publishable quality, and the Criminal Law Section reserves the right not to award one or more of the listed prizes, if, in the sole opinion of the judges, the papers submitted in the Competition do not meet its standards.

The Criminal Law Section reserves the right to edit the papers that are selected for publication.
 
For information about the Criminal Law Section see: 
http://criminallaw.calbar.ca.gov