Write-On Competition Information

Members of the New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement are selected based on a combination of their grade point average and participation in a writing competition conducted in cooperation with New England Law Review.  The writing competition consists of two components; a closed memorandum writing component based on a fact pattern and research materials supplied in the competition package as well as a technical component that addresses citation accuracy and skills.  Students are given approximately fourteen days to complete the competition.

To be eligible for the joint write-on competition, a student must have completed their first year, day division, or second year, evening division and be in the top fifty percent of their class.  Students transferring to New England School of Law who have completed their first year and were ranked as one of the top three students are encouraged to write-on.  After completing the writing competition, members are selected based on a raw score calculated by the student’s grade point average and write-on score.  Grade point average accounts for 65% of the candidates raw score.  The writing competition accounts for the remaining 35%, weighed 25% for the closed memorandum and 10% for the technical component.  Each submission is evaluated by different journal editors and final scores are determined by weighing the average of all scores.

Membership Responsibilities

First year associates play a crucial role in the Journal's publication.  Each first year associate must fulfill our note or case comment requirement by the spring of his or her associate year.  Associates are given the option of writing one long article or two short articles addressing a narrow topic of criminal law or civil confinement. Associates are also active throughout the year in the editing and cite checking articles to be published in the Journal.  Those who complete the writing and editing requirements and receive a mark of publishable quality on their article(s) are invited to be editors during their final year.

Interested students need not have an interest or proficiency in criminal law or civil confinement.  The Journal is interested in recruiting accomplished writers and editors who are interested in furthering legal scholarship and addressing timely and important constitutional and policy issues.  All candidates are encouraged to indicate their preference to join the New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement when taking part in the writing competition.  Any questions or issues regarding the write-on competition or the Journal generally should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief at journal@nesl.edu.