Ever since this was announced, I thought it was a great move for a law journal; and now it’s available on LEXIS, too (and I’m told WESTLAW might come soon) — a really important feature for those who want to be found later as well as read now. Plus the unsolicited submissions are blind-reviewed (see the last paragraph), which is a good move, especially for a journal of this caliber.
In any case, here’s their latest call for papers. Heed the call.
THE POCKET PART CALL FOR PAPERS
In October 2005, The Yale Law Journal launched The Pocket Part, an online companion to the Journal. Since then, The Pocket Part has published original essays and responses to the articles printed in the Journal. Those pieces, and future Pocket Part publications, will be available through LexisNexis later this summer.
The Journal seeks three types of submissions for The Pocket Part.
Essays. We invite members of the academy and the legal profession to submit original essays. These essays should achieve one of three purposes. First, a Pocket Part essay might bear directly on events unfolding in the present, so that it ought to be published at once, rather than at the end of a year-long editorial process. For example, while then-Judge Alito sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee, we published an essay on the scope of that Committee’s questions for a nominee — Robert Post & Reva Siegel, Questioning Justice: Law and Politics in Judicial Confirmation Hearings, 115 YALE L.J. POCKET PART 38 (2006). Second, an essay might seek to influence legislators and policy-makers outside of academia, who may lack the time to read printed law journals. Third, an essay might set forth what Professor Eugene Volokh has termed a “micro-discovery” — a brief observation that is novel and useful but that does not require a full-length article to express. See, for example, Daniel A. Farber, Uncertainty as a Basis for Standing, 33 HOFSTRA L. REV. 1123 (2005). Essays should be as short as possible, and must not exceed 4000 words.
Responses. We invite all our readers to respond to arguments made in the Journal. See, for example, Robert C. Ellickson, A Private Idaho in Greenwich Village?, 115 YALE L.J. POCKET PART 5 (2005); Andrew P. Thomas, The CSI Effect: Fact or Fiction?, 115 YALE L.J. POCKET PART 70 (2005). Responses should be as short as possible, and must not exceed 4000 words.
Commentaries. We invite all our readers to submit commentaries on interesting legal events. Recent court decisions, statutes, trials, speeches, and publications might all be good subjects for a commentary. For an excellent example, see Judy Coleman, Judgment Day — Arnold’s Star Turn as a California Supreme Court Justice, SLATE, Dec. 15, 2005. A commentary should describe and critique its subject in less than 1500 words.We encourage authors to write in a style accessible to policy-makers and practitioners. For a detailed style guide and more information about the submissions process, please visit our website, and follow the link for “Submissions.” Kindly remove all self-references from the submission itself; we will use the same blind selection process that we use for the Journal. We hope to respond to submissions within two weeks of receipt, and to publish within one month of acceptance.