The Appalachian Journal of Law (Law Journal) is a full text publication that provides a forum for issues that shape the lives of the people and communities of Appalachia as well as surrounding areas. The Law Journal includes an array of legal issues concerning many rising legal and political topics, such as alternative methods of dispute resolution and community service, and it functions as a medium for discussion to provide accurate and practical information for legal practitioners, the judiciary, community leaders, students, and educators. The Law Journal’s first publication was in September of 2002. It is published annually by student editors of the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, VA.
The Law Journal’s first publication was in September of 2002. To ensure that all students at ASL have an opportunity to join, the Law Journal has held a write-on competition every year since the summer of 2003.
Appalachian Journal of Law Editorial Board (PDF)
The Executive Editorial Board (Executive Board) manages the Law Journal. The Executive Board positions include: Editor-In-Chief, Executive Editor, Articles Editor(s), Notes & Comments Editor(s), Publication Editor, and the Managing Editor. The prior year’s Executive Board elects current Executive Board members. Third year students who do not serve on the Executive Board serve as Senior Editors. The Senior Editors directly supervise the editing and critiquing work of Associate Editors on the Law Journal’s lead articles. The Associate Editors positions include: Stylistic Editor(s), Footnotes Editor(s), Sources Editor(s) and/or Final Editor(s) or any other position deemed necessary by the Senior Editor.
To be eligible to serve on the Law Journal’s Executive Board during a student’s third year, a student must serve one year on the Law Journal as an Associate Editor, and meet the Successful Service requirement which is determined by the Faculty Advisor. In order to serve as the Editor-In-Chief, Executive Editor, or Senior Notes and Comments Editor, Associate Editors must fulfill all of the previously mentioned requirements and write a note of publishable quality during their time as an Associate Editor.
Second year and third year students may join as Associate Editors by completing the annual write-on competition held each summer. Senior Editor positions are restricted to Third Year students and may join by either completing the annual write-on competition or submitting an adequate writing sample. An adequate writing sample is either a prior Appellate Advocacy brief, a seminar paper, or a compilation of legal memos from Legal Writing with a Purpose. All writing samples must amount to at least twenty pages, and all in-text citations must be converted to footnotes. Senior Editors are ineligible to receive seminar credit.
Associate Editors do not have to serve on the Executive Board during their third year. However, Associate Editors must still participate in the write-on competition in order to be eligible to be retained as an Associate Editor. A third year Associate Editor will be ineligible to receive seminar credit.
Students who serve two years on the Law Journal (at least one year on the Executive Board), meet the Successful Service requirement, and who write a note of publishable quality (in either their second year or third year) may substitute that service for the two-credit Seminar Requirement in their third year.
The Appalachian Journal of Law encourages the submission of unsolicited manuscripts for publication. Manuscript submissions should be double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1” margin, text aligned to the left (except for headings) to our Scholastica page at https://appalachian.scholasticahq.com/, or by email (Microsoft Word preferred) to law_journal@my.asl.edu. The text and citations of the Appalachian Journal of Law should generally conform to the current editions of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation and The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.
(Disclaimer: the information contained on this page is subject to change at any time)
