Student Note Requirement

Writing a student note is an important part of your experience on this Journal and can be a very rewarding process whether or not it is selected for publication.

A note is a research paper on a legal topic selected by the staff member that is related to the issue of immigration. Beyond that one criterion, the number of acceptable topics is very broad. The note is expected to be approximately 25 pages in length, with footnotes supplied in Bluebook format.

All GILJ staff members are required to submit a note for publication during their first year as a staff member. Students whose notes are selected for publication gain an important advantage on their resume. If selected, you will also be asked to sign a publication agreement and license.

It is not feasible to have all staff members of one Journal cohort submit their Note at the same time. This will create a bottleneck as the Notes editors will have to review the entire bulk of everyone’s submissions. For this reason, there are three submission periods—Fall 2022, Spring 2023, or Fall 2023. We strongly encourage new staff members to try and complete their Note early. This will both allow the Notes Editors to review the submissions in a timely manner and will provide staff members with additional time to edit their notes if necessary.

We strongly encourage students to fulfill their Upper Legal Writing Requirement alongside their Note requirement. Accordingly, please select a writing requirement course that will facilitate writing your note. If you choose not to, please consult Anna Nagler (Lead Notes Editor) or Prashasti Bhatnagar (Managing Notes/CDs Editor) at pb909@georgetown.edu.

Check out Professional Development and Academic Resources for information and recommendations for immigration classes.

You can fulfill the Note Requirement by:

• Writing a traditional legal Note (25–40 double spaced pages, ~6200 words) focused on immigration simultaneously with your Georgetown Upper Writing Requirement.

OR

• Writing at least 2 (im)migrant narratives and securing at least 1 narrative from a community member. Collectively, both narratives should exceed 6,200 words. Each submission should be between 750 to 5000 words.

We hope that these alternatives will support students who fulfill their Georgetown Writing Requirement through different experiences (e.g., law fellows) and also help in building trust and relationships with the community at large. If you have any questions about submitting a narrative, feel free to email Prashasti Bhatnagar (pb909@georgetown.edu) and/or head over to Publication Opportunities to learn more about (im)migrant narratives submissions.

Your topic must be original and must pass a topic preemption check. That said, your Note will likely overlap with some previous research. You can take the approach of looking at more recent legislation on an issue, adopting a different opinion, etc.

If you need help brainstorming a topic, please contact Lauren Hodges (Lead Notes Editor) or Hamsa Fayed (Managing Notes/CD Editor).

Check out Professional Development and Academic Resources for information and recommendations for immigration classes.

Throughout the year, the library reference desk is available to help you answer any cite-checking or research question through individual meetings, email, or live chats. Other library resources that might be helpful during your research process for your Note are available here.

Our journal librarian liaison is Anne Guha (Anne.Guha@law.georgetown.edu). Feel free to reach out to her with any questions or concerns.