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'You Don't Have to Speak German to Work on the German Law Journal': Reflections on the Value of Being a Student Editor While Being a Law Student

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Danielle Allen  and
Bernadette Maheandiran

Extract

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Explaining the work of the German Law Journal has become almost second nature to student editors; at one point in our legal careers we all have to justify to a colleague, a future employer, a parent, or potential student editor recruits the existence of a journal that, based on name alone, appears to centre on a civil law country in Europe at a North American law school that teaches the common law. Most of us have some version of this statement ready:

The German Law Journal is a monthly, English-language, peer-reviewed, online law journal that focuses on the recent developments in German, European and International Law. The name reflects the Journal's original purpose: to create a monthly English legal periodical that would make German constitutional jurisprudence more accessible to the non-German speaking world. While the mandate of the Journal has grown over time, the name, however, has stuck.

Type
Section 5: ‘Is More More?’ Thinking about Student Organization, Government and Community
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 6-7: Following the Call of the Wild: The Promises and Perils of Transnationalizing Legal Education , July 2009 , pp. 1149 - 1168
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Or alternatively, the ‘Journal’ or ‘GLJ’ from this point forward.Google Scholar

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6 It should be noted that between the 2002/03 – 2007/08 academic years, the U.S. student editorial team was based at the University of Idaho College of Law, located in Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A.Google Scholar

7 The process of joining the Journal as a student editor at Osgoode has changed dramatically in the last year. In the 2006/07 and 2007/08 academic years, any student who was interested in joining simply had to attend the first meeting, sign up, and keep on coming. This meant that first meeting of the year was generally packed full of students interested in hearing more about the Journal, and that slowly over the next month numbers would shrink and students who enjoyed the meetings stayed on. With increased interest in the Journal, this year was the first year that required an application. Students were asked to submit a resume and cover letter explaining why they were interested in working on the Journal and what skills and experience they could bring with them. These applications are evaluated by the Osgoode Co-Editor-in-Chief, and Student Managing Editor, who look not at grades but rather at experience, interest, and attention to detail in the application. It would be accurate to observe that while the Journal remains more flexible and fluctuating than many similar publications, as its numbers grow participation in the Journal is becoming more formalized.Google Scholar

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40 Id. Google Scholar

41 Degrees in Law, Council of Australian Law Deans, Accessible at: http://www.cald.asn.au/slia/Legal.htm#Degrees on 26 May 2009.Google Scholar

42 Supra MacLaren (note 16) at 387.Google Scholar

43 Supra, Law Reviews: Do the Inmates Run the Asylum? (note 5).Google Scholar

44 Fred Rodell, Goodbye to Law Reviews, 23 Virginia Law Review 38 (1936). In 1962, Rodell reworked his theme in Fred Rodell, Goodbye to Law Reviews — Revisited, 48 Virginia Law Review 279 (1962).Google Scholar

45 Id. Google Scholar

46 Michael Vitiello has divided the critique of student-run law reviews into two camps. The first critique the elitism and undemocraticness in the way in which law reviews hire new student editors; the second suggests that student editors lack the expertise to address the interdisciplinary turn in legal scholarship (the ‘law and articles) and further perpetuate conventional writing. See Michael Vitiello, In Defense of Student Run Law Reviews, 17 Cumberland Law Review (Cumb. L. R.) 859 (1986).Google Scholar

47 Supra, Hibbitts (note 2)Google Scholar

48 See Supra, Rodell (note 44); Supra, Greschner (note 25); Supra, Leclair (note 23); Supra, Hibbitts (note 2)Google Scholar

49 Against the Law Reviews: Welcome to a World Where Inexperienced Editors Make Articles About the Wrong Topics Worse, Richard A. Posner, Legal Affairs (2004), Accessible at: http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2004/review_posner_novdec04.msp on 3 May 2009. For an interesting debate about the merits of Australian law reviews, see: Supra, Kirby (note 32); Gava, John, Law Reviews: Good For Judges, Bad For Law Schools?, 26 Melbourne University Law Review 29, (2002). Accessible at: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MULR/2002/29.html#fn1 on 26 May 2009.Google Scholar

50 Kester, John G. argues that even 100 per cent student-run journals seek some guidance from faculty members, and in this way have some degree of peer review, see John G. Kester, Faculty Participation in the Student-Edited Law Review, 36 Journal of Legal Education (J. Legal Educ.) 14 (1986). Kester goes on to suggest that the criticisms against the quality of student-run publications are a reflection of the fact that law faculties are now more fragmented and do not agree on what makes good legal scholarship. This makes faculty less of a resource to student-edited journals.Google Scholar

51 The argument that students are more willing to take a risk and publish something that is unconventional is not new, see Phil Nichols, A Student Defense of Student Edited Journals: in Response to Professor Roger Crampton, Duke Law Journal (Duke L. J.) 1122, 1125 (1987); and Olsen, Frances, The Role of Student-Run Law Journals in Opening North American Law, 39 Alberta Law Review (Alta. L. Rev.) 678, 680–81, (2001).Google Scholar

52 Supra, Posner (note 49).Google Scholar