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Student Submissions

The Harvard International Law Journal publishes two forms of student writing:

  1. Student Notes (published approximately once per year in the print edition)
  2. Student Commentaries (published semi-annually online only)

Only submissions from current Harvard Law School students will be accepted for publication.

Student Notes

Students interested in submitting Student Notes should sign up for the ILJ list-serv and watch the ILJ member list-serv emails for information regarding future student note competitions. Students may also watch the Harvard Law School administrative updates for basic information.

The competition is open to all HLS students, although ILJ members will be given priority. Submissions should be approximately 5000-10000 words, addressing any aspect of international or comparative law. Submissions over 20,000 words (including footnotes) will not be considered. Articles will be evaluated based on the clarity of the writing, the strength of the argument, and the originality of the thesis. Authors may want to include in the abstract, or in the email accompanying the submission, a description of the Note’s contribution to a particular area of international law.

Notes will go through the standard editing process, and authors should expect to make additional edits before publication.

Student Commentaries

Students interested in submitting Student Commentaries should sign up for the ILJ list-serv and watch the ILJ member list-serv emails for information regarding future student note competitions. Students may also watch the Harvard Law School administrative updates for basic information.

The competition is open to all HLS students, although ILJ members will be given priority. Student Commentaries should be shorter than Notes (Commentaries should be about 2,000-5,000 words long) on a recent development or topical issue in international law (case commentaries are highly recommended). Responses should be submitted in Word format, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font. Margins should be 1″ on all sides. All footnotes should adhere to Bluebook style guidelines.

Commentaries will go through the standard online editing process and will be published on ILJ’s website. Students should expect to make additional edits before publication.