Section on Federal Courts

Date Chartered: 5/31/1988

Purpose

The Section on Federal Courts seeks to advance knowledge pertaining to the federal courts and the federal system and presents a program of interest to federal courts teachers and scholars at the AALS Annual Meeting.

Leadership   Listserv & Member-Only Content

Newsletters

Federal Courts July 2018 Newsletter (PDF)
Federal Courts May 2018 Newsletter (PDF)
Federal Courts July 2017 Newsletter (PDF)
Federal Courts May 2017 Newsletter (PDF)

Annual Meeting Programs

2020

Main Program
Business Meeting

2019

Main Program
Business Meeting
Pedagogy

Awards

Best Article Award

The Section on Federal Courts of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) wishes to recognize excellence in legal scholarship by full-time untenured faculty members at AALS member and affiliate schools. The purpose of the award program is to recognize outstanding scholarship in the field of federal courts by untenured faculty members.

Nominations and Eligibility:  Nominations for the best article award should be directed to the chair of the section or to a member of the award selection committee and received no later than September 15 of the year preceding the annual award. Self-nominations are to be welcomed. Section officers will take appropriate steps to notify the Section members of the deadline, through the Section’s communication platform, listservs, blog posts, section newsletter announcements, and announcements at the annual meeting.

Eligible articles are those in the field of Federal Courts law that were published by a recognized journal during the twelve-month period ending on September 1 before the close of nominations (date of actual publication determines eligibility). Eligible authors are those who, at the close of nominations, were untenured full-time faculty members at AALS member or affiliate schools and have not previously won the award.

Selection Process: Each year, at the annual meeting, the chair of the Section on Federal Courts will announce the winner of the “best article” competition.

The best article will be chosen by a three-person award selection committee. Members of the award selection committee will be elected as part of the slate of section officers at the annual meeting. From the articles nominated, the award selection committee will select the top three articles by November 1 and notify the section chair. Following identification of the three finalists, prize committee members will cast their vote for a single best article by November 15. The section chair will tabulate the votes and determine the winner. The section chair shall cast the deciding vote in case of a tie.

Announcement and Ceremony: Following receipt of AALS approval, the chair will announce the award.

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