Writing Competition

As one of the largest and most established ACS Chapters, Penn is proud to host the annual ACS National Student Writing Competition. This law student competition is an opportunity to recognize legal scholarship that enhances the understanding and reputation of legal theories that promote ACS's core goals. Papers are judged on their effective use, analysis, and/or expansion of progressive legal scholarship by a committee of federal judges and leading academics. The student authors of the top three papers will receive special recognition at the ACS National Convention and a cash prize for their work. The top paper will also receive an offer of publication in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law.

The Penn Chapter has the special responsibility of coordinating this event. We publicize the Competition, collect submissions using a double-blind system, and select papers for the National Committee review with the help of peer readers. If you are interested in helping with any aspect of this process, please contact Rachel Zuraw.

The 2008 Competition Theme is Liberty, Security, and Democracy in Our Evolving Society. This topic should be viewed broadly and can include -- but are not limited to -- topics discussing separation of powers, voting rights, national security, equal protection, and freedom of the press. The Competition is open to all full-time or part-time law students currently enrolled in a J.D., LL.M. or S.J.D. program in the US. Participants may submit only one entry, which must be an original unpublished academic work by a single author.

Deadline and Submission Process: The deadline for submitting papers (and entry fees, if applicable) is February 8, 2008. Papers can be submitted via email (lawgroup-ACScompetition@law.upenn.edu) or regular mail (University of Pennsylvania Law School; Attn: American Constitution Society Writing Competition; 3400 Chestnut Street; Philadelphia, PA 19104). Please include a Submission Form with your entry.
- There is no entry fee. However, all participants must be student members of the national American Constitution Society. Download the membership form here. This form and the $10 membership fee can be mailed/emailed to the Penn Chapter with your submission or can be sent to National.
- We would appreciate if all interested participants could email the Penn Chapter by January 4, 2008 (lawgroup-ACScompetition@law.upenn.edu) if you intend to participate in the Competition. While not mandatory, this will allow us to secure an adequate core of judges at the local and national levels.
Format: Sumbissions must be between 25 and 50 pages, including footnotes. The text must be double-spaces 12-point Courier font with 1-inch margins. Footnotes may be in single-spaced 10-point font. Please remove all instances of your name and school (or any other identifiers) from the paper; this information should appear only on the Submission Form accompanying your piece. Submissions not meeting these requirements may be disqualified. The Penn Law Writing Competition Committee will determine whether minor alterations could be made to prevent disqualification, and may ask the author to make these changes.
Judging Process: All submissions go through an initial screening process, where they are labeled with an anonymous identifier code and are checked for compliance with Competition rules. Each paper is read and scored by three peer reviewers; the finalists (generally around 10) are sent to the National Judging Panel, which selects the top three papers. Submissions are judged on: depth of legal analysis, quality of writing, readiness for publication, originality (in topic selection and treatment), thoroughness of research, relevance to the development of progressive constitutional jurisprudence, and discussion of conclusions and future impact.
Awards: The winners will be announced in April and at the Annual National Convention. The author of the top submission will receive $3,000 and will be eligible for publication in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law. The authors of the two runner-up submissions will each receive $1,000. ACS will post winning submissions on its website, and the three winning authors will be recognized at the 2008 ACS National Convention.
Plagarism: The University of Pennsylvania Law School's plagarism rules govern this Competition and can be found at http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/illdoc/plagarism.ppt.

More information can be found on ACS National's website. The 2008 flier and Submission Forms can be downloaded here. If you have additional questions, please email lawgroup-ACScompetition@law.upenn.edu or Writing Competition Student Coordinator, Rachel.

The 2007 Theme was Fostering a More Robust Democracy. Congratulations to our winner, Erin Delaney, New York University Law School, for her paper entitled "In the Shadow of Article I: Applyng a Dormant Commerce Claure Analysis to State Laws Regulating Aliens." Our Runners-Up were John Terry Dundon, George Washington University Law School, for his paper entitled "Depoliticizing the Judiciary: Deconstructing Textualism" and Chloe Cockburn, Harvard Law School, for her paper entitled "Out of the Ivory Tower: Rethinking Judicial Elections with Lessons in Solidarity from Juries who Sentence Capital Defendants to Life." Abstracts of all three papers can be found on the National website's Writing Competition page.