Law Review Constitution
Article I. Purpose
The purpose of this constitution shall be to establish certain policies outlining responsibilities and selection of the student editorial staff of the North Dakota Law Review (Law Review).
Article II. Definitions
Associate editor - a Law Review member who completes regular staff assignments.
Candidate - any student writing for the Law Review who has not previously been accepted for Law Review membership.
Case comment - a student-written work dealing with an important recent case.
Contributed article - any article that is not used to attain Law Review membership.
Law Review Board - the editor in chief, managing editor, research editor, outside articles editor, symposium editor, managing associate editor, and two student articles editors.
Member - a candidate who has been approved for membership to the Law Review.
Note - a student-written work dealing with an issue within a particular area of law.
Outside author - a legal practitioner who has graduated from law school. An LL.M. candidate is considered an outside author.
Publishable Quality - an original work suitable for publication in the Law Review as determined by the Law Review Board.
Substantial Quality - a thoroughly researched analysis and discussion of a law related topic as determined by the Law Review Board.
Article III. Governing Structure
A faculty advisor shall be appointed by the Dean of the University of North Dakota School of Law after consultation with the Law Review Board. The advisor shall function as the liaison between the faculty and the Law Review Editors and staff, and in an advisory capacity with regard to all matters relating to the publication of the Law Review. The editor in chief shall provide monthly status reports to both the advisor and the Dean of the University of North Dakota School of Law.
The student positions on the Law Review shall consist of:
an editor in chief,
no more than seven other board editors,
associate editors, and
candidates.
Article IV. Duties and Responsibilities
The Law Review Board, associate editors, and candidates of the Law Review shall have the duty and responsibility of performing all functions necessary for quarterly publication of the Law Review. The Law Review Board, associate editors, and candidates shall work under the direction of the editor in chief. The associate editors and the candidates for membership shall perform such duties as assigned by the Law Review Board. Editors and other members may be discharged for cause by a two-thirds vote of the Law Review Board.
The Law Review Board shall be selected by the retiring Law Review Board.
The following criteria may be used in selecting the Law Review Board:
law school grades and scholastic ranking;
demonstrated legal writing ability;
demonstrated staff contributions;
ability to work effectively with others; and
any other relevant factors.
In the event of a vacancy occurring on the Law Review Board, such vacancy shall be filled from among the current members by a process of nomination and election performed by the remaining members of the Law Review Board; that person shall remain in office for the unexpired term of that position.
The Law Review Board may use the following criteria, and no other factors, to select Law Review members:
qualified academic standing as determined by the Dean's office;
demonstrated legal writing ability by writing a Publishable Quality article;
demonstrated staff contributions; and
ability to work effectively with others.
A student who has been accepted for Law Review membership is eligible to be an associate editor. Associate editors will be required to complete regular staff assignments.
Article V. Candidates and Members
First year students shall not be eligible for membership to the Law Review. Second and third year students shall be eligible for membership to the Law Review only after they have written a recent case comment, note, or other written work approved by the Law Review Board.
All first drafts submitted to the Law Review Board must be of Substantial Quality before the writer is accepted as a candidate for membership. If, after careful consideration of the content, comprehensiveness, analysis, and writing, the first draft is deemed unacceptable by a majority of the Law Review Board, the board will not accept a second draft. The writer will be informed of this nonappealable decision in writing. While this writer will not be eligible to submit a second draft, the writer may, if he or she is a second year student, submit a first draft of a note or case comment the following school year. If that draft is approved, the writer may become a candidate for membership, and upon satisfactory completion of weekly assignments and submission of a draft in publishable form, attain Law Review membership.
Once accepted as a candidate, in order to become a member of the Law Review, the writer must submit a note, case comment, or other written work approved by the Law Review Board of Publishable Quality and successfully complete all assignments. Assignments include, but are not limited to: editing, citing and sourcing footnotes, proofreading page proofs, and ensuring cited authority as precedent. These assignments must be performed for the entire academic year in which the student article is written, regardless of the student's year in school. A candidate must also maintain satisfactory progress in addressing the student articles editor's suggestions. All written work submitted for Law Review membership must be edited by at least two editors and approved as Publishable Quality by at least two-thirds of the Law Review Board.
All written works submitted must be of Publishable Quality before the writing requirement is met. The Law Review Board will designate a date when the written work must be submitted for consideration as Publishable Quality. The candidate must submit the work on or by that date in order to be considered for formal appointment as a member in that semester when the writing was done. Any work previously submitted for credit in a class will not be considered for Law Review membership.
Two-thirds of the Law Review Board must approve a candidate's membership to the Law Review based upon the acceptance of the written work, satisfactory staff work, and consideration of the criteria set forth in article IV section 5 above.
A student collaborating on an article with an outside author or authors may not use the work to attain Law Review membership and will not be recognized as an author in the Law Review if the article is published. The outside author or authors may recognize the student in a footnote at the outside author's discretion in terms that the outside author chooses.
A student may not submit a contributed article to the Law Review until he or she has graduated from law school, at which time he or she will be considered an outside author.
The Law Review practices a policy of non-discrimination in soliciting student and outside authors, hiring employees, awarding scholarships and fellowships, selecting board members, and in other personnel actions. The Law Review is committed to administering all personnel actions without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, creed, marital status, veteran's status, political belief or affiliation, or physical, mental, or medical disability unrelated to the ability to engage in activities involved with Law Review.
During the summer, the editor in chief and managing editor shall perform a minimum of three hundred eighty-five (385) hours of work on Law Review projects, and the outside articles editor shall perform a minimum of sixty (60) hours of work on Law Review projects. Each academic semester, each editor on the Law Review Board shall perform a minimum of one hundred sixty (160) hours of work on Law Review projects.
Any member of the North Dakota Law Review Board of Editors may participate in an internship for which the student receives academic credit or may serve as faculty research assistant or Burtness Scholar. An editor may also accept or continue an outside clerkship or other employment for pay. However, outside commitments, whether for credit or for pay, are permissible only to the extent that they do not interfere with an editor's law review duties and responsibilities.
Article VI. Author Recognition
Authors of published works will be recognized according to author category as follows:
A note or case comment student author will be recognized by name at the end of the published work and in the Table of Contents.
An outside author will be recognized by name at the beginning of the published work, on the cover of the issue, and in the Table of Contents.
Article VII. Recognition and Scholarships.
Editors and the editorial staff members, at a designated time during the semester prior to graduation, shall be awarded a certificate recognizing their service to the Law Review.
Each member of the Law Review Board will receive a scholarship during each semester. Such scholarships shall be paid at the direction of the Dean of the University of North Dakota School of Law.
Article VIII. Amending the Constitution
Amendments to this constitution shall be made by a two-thirds vote of all members present at an official meeting, provided that more than fifty percent of the members are present at the meeting. An official meeting shall be any meeting designated for the purpose of amending this constitution, and actual notice of such a meeting must be by the editor in chief at least seven days in advance of such meeting date, not including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.
Article IX. Citing this Document
This document may be cited as N.D. L. REV. CONST.
Article X. Effective Date
This constitution shall be effective from midnight on the day it has been formally approved by the members of the Law Review enrolled in the University of North Dakota School of Law in the fall semester of the 1973-74 academic year, and approved by members of the full-time law faculty in the fall semester of the 1973-74 academic year, and finally approved by the Dean of the School of Law, Robert K. Rushing.
Article XI. Formal Approval
I, editor in chief of the North Dakota Law Review, formally certify that this constitution was approved by the members of the North Dakota Law Review enrolled in the School of Law in the fall semester of the 1973-74 academic year, by the full-time faculty of the School of Law employed in the fall semester of the 1973-74 academic year, and by Dean Robert K. Rushing, Dean of the School of Law in 1973-74, and that this constitution was amended by the members of the North Dakota Law Review enrolled in the School of Law in the fall semesters of the 1994-95 and 1995-96 and 2000-01 and the spring semester of 2001-02 academic years.
