JOLT Student Note Submission and Competition

The Harvard Journal of Law and Technology is excited to announce our student writing competition for publication in Volume 38! Submissions should engage with novel issues at the intersection of law and technology. Topics may include but are not limited to cybercrime, biotechnology, space law, entertainment and news media, comparative legal approaches to intellectual property, the law of the Internet, and technology in the public interest. We encourage creative approaches

The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Friday, July 5, 2024.

The winner will receive $1,000 and publication in JOLT’s Volume 38.

STUDENT NOTE REQUIREMENTS

• Notes must be 4,000–8,000 words, not including footnotes
• Notes must examine a current issue in law and technology
• Authors must be current law students at any U.S. or international law school or alumni within one year of graduation, or a current student supervised by a faculty member at any U.S. or international law school

Sample student notes are available on jolt.law.harvard.edu. Please consult them as you prepare your submission.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

To submit, please send the following two documents to joltstudentnotes@gmail.com. Your email subject line should read “JOLT STUDENT AUTHOR APPLICATION”

1) Your completed Student Note Application, filled out from this document, and titled Lastname_Firstname_Fall_v38_NoteApplication.

Ex: Doe_Jane_Fall_v38_NoteApplication.doc

2) The most complete draft of your proposed note, in Microsoft Word format, titled Fall_v38_NoteDraft_Title. Because our review process is blind, your name, school, or any other identifying information should not appear anywhere on your draft. Including any such information may lead to disqualification.

Ex: Fall_v38_NoteDraft_Super_Awesome_Student_Note.doc

Competition Eligibility

To be eligible for the competition, in addition to fulfilling the standard Student Note Requirements above, student note authors must also fulfill the following conditions:

• Authors must be current law students pursuing a JD, LLM, or JSD at an ABA-accredited law school or alumni within one year of graduation.
• Authors must not submit their papers for publication to any other periodical until the end of JOLT’s review process in mid August.
• Authors must not have won a previous JOLT competition.

Competition Awards

All competition submissions will be considered for publication in our Volume 38. The winner will receive $1,000 and publication in JOLT’s Volume 38.

EVALUATION

Student note submissions are evaluated based on the quality of the writing, the organization and structure of the piece, fit with JOLT, contributions to the field, engagement with current literature (including the quality of the preemption check), and the quality of the citations and sources. JOLT reserves the right to revoke the acceptance of any submission for any reason, including due to a finding of plagiarism at any stage of the submission or editing process.

If accepted, you should be able to comply with the editing and revision process, which may extend through the Spring 2025 academic semester. For the competition, please follow the same submission instructions for our standard student note submission process above. The student note application asks whether you are entering the competition. The same evaluation criteria applies to our competition.

THANK YOU! Your interest in publishing with us is an honor to the JOLT community, and your time spent completing this application is deeply appreciated. Please contact joltstudentnotes@gmail.com with any questions.