MEMORANDUM 03-17

The AALS is sponsoring its nineteenth annual Call for Scholarly Papers to encourage and recognize excellent legal scholarship and to broaden participation by new law teachers in the Annual Meeting program. Those who will have been full-time law teachers for less than seven years on July 1, 2003, are invited to submit papers by August 22, 2003. The papers are reviewed (on an anonymous basis) by a committee of established scholars, including Dale Whitman (Missouri-Columbia), AALS Immediate Past President, will serve as chair of the review committee which includes June Rose Carbone (Santa Clara), Robert J. Cottrol (George Washington), Stephen G. Gilles (Quinnipiac), Suzanne B. Goldberg (Rutgers, Newark), 2003 Winner, and Peter Linzer (Houston). Papers that make a substantial contribution to legal literature may be selected for distribution and oral presentation at a special program at the 2004 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

The AALS would like, as in past years, a sizable number of scholarly papers of high quality and on a broad array of topics for the committee's review. As dean, you have considerable interest in, and influence over, the summer research plans of your junior faculty. We therefore ask that you encourage your eligible faculty to submit their papers to the AALS. Previous winners have told us that this honor has made a difference to the law review editors considering publication of their articles.

I attach to this memorandum the complete information on the competition. The information is also published in the February and April issues of the AALS Newsletter.

cc: Executive Committee
     Deans of Modified Service Fee-Paid Schools

VVM:sls

Call for Scholarly Papers for 2004 Annual Meeting

To encourage and recognize excellent legal scholarship and to broaden participation by new law teachers in the Annual Meeting program, the Association is sponsoring its nineteenth annual Call for Scholarly Papers.

Those who will have been full-time law teachers at an AALS member or fee-paid school for seven years or fewer on July 1, 2003 are invited to submit a paper on a topic related to or concerning law. A committee of established scholars will review the submitted papers with the authors' identities concealed. Dale Whitman (Missouri-Columbia), the AALS Immediate Past President, will serve as chair of the review committee, which also includes June Rose Carbone (Santa Clara), Robert J. Cottrol (George Washington), Stephen G. Gilles (Quinnipiac), Suzanne B. Goldberg (Rutgers, Newark), 2003 Winner, and Peter Linzer (Houston). Papers that make a substantial contribution to legal literature may be selected for distribution and oral presentation at a special program to be held at the AALS Annual Meeting in January 2004. Authors of the presented papers will also be recognized at the Annual Meeting Luncheon. The selection committee must determine that a paper is of sufficient quality to deserve this special recognition, and the AALS is not obligated to select any paper.

Deadline: Manuscripts must be received at the Association office no later than August 22, 2003, to be considered in the 2004 competition. Six copies of the manuscript should be sent to: Call for Scholarly Papers, Association of American Law Schools, 1201 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20036-2605.

Anonymity: The manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter with the author's name and contact information. The manuscript itself, including title page and footnotes, must not contain any reference that identify the author or the author's school. The submitting author is responsible for taking any steps necessary to redact self-identifying text or footnotes.

Form and Length: The manuscript must be typed, double-spaced, on 8 1/2" by 11" paper in 12-point (or larger) type with ample (at least 1") margins on all sides. Footnotes should be 10-point or larger, single-spaced, and preferably on the same page as the referenced text. Submissions are limited to articles, essays and book chapters. There is no page limit; manuscripts can be of any length. Manuscripts will not be returned.

Eligibility: Faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid schools are eligible to submit papers. The Call is open to those who have been full-time law teachers for seven years or fewer as of July 1, 2003. (For these purposes, one is considered a full-time faculty member while officially "on leave" from the law school.) Co-authored papers are eligible for consideration, but each of the co-authors must meet the eligibility criteria established above. No one who has won the AALS Scholarly Papers Competition is eligible to compete again. Honorable Mention recipients are eligible to enter again. Professors are also restricted to submitting only one paper in the Scholarly Paper Competition.

Papers are expected to reflect original research or major developments in previously reported research. Papers are not eligible for consideration if they will have been published before February 2004. Submitted papers, whether or not selected for recognition, may be subsequently published as arranged by the authors. Papers may have been revised on the basis of review by colleagues.

Statement of Compliance: The cover letter accompanying each submission must include a statement verifying: 1) the author holds a faculty appointment at a member or fee-paid school; 2) the author has been engaged in full-time teaching for seven years or fewer as of July 1, 2003; 3) all information identifying the author or author's school has been removed from the manuscript; and 4) the paper has not been previously published and is not committed for publication prior to February 2004.

Presentation at the Annual Meeting: The author of any selected paper will present an oral summary of the paper at a special program to be held at the 2004 Annual Meeting. Copies of the paper will be made available for distribution to those attending the presentation.

Inquiries: Questions should be directed to AALS Deputy Director Veryl V. Miles at the AALS national office in Washington, D.C. (telephone, 202-296-8851, or e-mail, vmiles@aals.org).

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