Prospective Members

Since 1949, HLJ has published scholarly articles, essays, and student Notes on a broad range of legal topics. With close to ninety members, HLJ publishes six issues each year, reaching a large domestic and international audience. In 2019, HLJ hosted a Spring Symposium,“The Jurisprudence of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy: Four Decades of Influence.”

Second-year members may contribute to the Journal in a variety of areas, including article, Note, and SCOCAblog editing, technical production of pieces ready for publication, and Symposia preparation and execution. Members also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of HLJ’s social functions, networking events, and campus engagements in order to develop a sense of community with their fellow classmates and meaningful relationships with the HLJ third-year staff. One of the most challenging and satisfying aspects of second-year membership is the opportunity to research, write, and publish a student Note: a piece of legal scholarship similar to law review articles authored by professors. Each second-year member investigates an area of interest in the law; selects a topic on a developing issue in that area; and, assisted by a third-year mentor and the Journal’s Notes staff, refines the topic and composes a paper on the subject.

Thank you for your interest, and HLJ wishes you the best of luck in the Inter-Journal Writing Competition.

Rising Second-year Students

Rising second-year students may join the Hastings Law Journal by participating in the school’s annual writing competition. Members are chosen as follows:

  1. The top five students from each section are invited to join on the basis of their GPA.*
  2. Twenty students are invited on the basis of their writing competition scores.
  3. Sixteen students are invited on the basis of a composite of their writing competition scores and their GPA.
  4. Students may be invited through the Intellectual Diversity Program.

*Please note that a student invited based on GPA must still submit a writing competition application.

Transfer Students

Transfer students may join the Hastings Law Journal by participating in the school’s writing competition for transfer students. Contact the Scholarly Publications office at scholarp@uchastings.edu for more information.
To learn more about being a Hastings Law Journal member, please stop by our office located on the 23rd floor of the Tower, or contact us:

Hastings Law Journal
UC Hastings College of the Law
200 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-4978
Phone: 415.581.8960
Email: hlj@hastingslawjournal.org
Do not send emails about the writing competition to this email address. All writing competition inquires should be sent to the Scholarly Publications office.

Rising Third-year Students

Rising third-year students may join the Hastings Law Journal by participating in the self-submittal program. Interested students must submit a prospectus for a student note. Before doing any work on a self-submittal entry, please contact the Scholarly Publications office for more information.