Op-ed: Should UVA Give Credit to Journals?

So, What Do Journals Actually Do?

With the journal tryout officially complete, 1Ls are getting their first introductions to legal academia (and patiently awaiting the results of their efforts), 2Ls are moving up the ranks in their journals, and certain 3Ls are finally starting to “3LOL.” With all the current buzz about journals, you may be asking “What do journals actually do?” For the unacquainted, the journal system at UVA and law schools across the country operate as well-oiled machines:

1)    Legal scholars and hopeful students submit articles and notes to various journals.

2)   Student journal editors decide what to publish, often sifting through hundreds of submissions, ranging dramatically in quality and interest.

3)   Students then must make the selected articles polished and publishable, or what is known as completing a “cite check.” Students must make sure that all citations adhere to the supreme Bluebook, and that the author’s claims can be substantiated by said citations.

4)   After working with the authors to edit their articles and ensuring that they have not plagiarized anything (yes, Professors are capable of plagiarism too!), the journal then publishes the article in their volume. These articles may go on to be cited in court decisions, other journal articles, and textbooks, awarding both the author and the journal critical acclaim.

Year after year, these journal machines continue to run, with diligent students ensuring that articles get edited and published on time, as well as hosting symposia and guest speakers, administering the tryout, selecting the incoming class of journal members, designing merchandise, operating blogs, hosting writing competitions, securing sponsorships, and more! Given the wide role that students play in this system, without them, legal academia might cease to function. In fact, the late Justice Benjamin Cardozo once said that “the sobering truth is that leadership in the march of legal thought has been passing in our day from the benches of the courts to the chairs of universities.”

Should Students Receive Some Form of Compensation for Journal Work?

Short answer: Maybe!

Long answer: While professors rely on student-run journals to publish their articles, students also benefit from the journal system. In addition to engaging with legal scholarship and enhancing one’s legal research and writing skills, participation on a journal has historically been said to improve one’s career prospects, especially with regard to clerkships, litigation, and academia. However, with 2L legal recruiting getting earlier each year, many have wondered whether the personal benefits of journal membership are enough.

To some, it is not. In 2022, a majority of the journals signed on to a letter to then-Dean Goluboff calling upon the Law School to “provide [academic] credit for students’ work on journals.” The memo argued that journal work is academic in nature, that students spend significant amounts of time performing journal work each year, that the lack of compensation contributes to the poor mental health of law students, and that unpaid labor should not be acceptable in the current social climate (pointing to the debates surrounding compensation for college athletes). At the time, few schools in the T-20 were providing credit, and the students proposed a system modeled after NYU’s, allowing students to earn a maximum of 2 credits for journal work.

UVA Law’s administration ultimately shot down the proposal. They found a lack of support among faculty and the student body, expressed concerns about oversight of the system, and could not find a reason to further incentivize journal participation. Ironically, while the system empowers self-trained students to be the arbiters of good legal scholarship, the administration was not comfortable with giving students more power in this domain.

Has Anything Changed Since 2022?

Short answer: Not at UVA!

Long answer: In August 2023, the ABA adopted a resolution “urg[ing] all law schools to adopt policies, in a manner consistent with the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools, to permit students to obtain either academic or monetary compensation for their participation as editors of law reviews and other academic law journals.” While not binding upon institutions, law schools nationwide are continuing to adopt credit policies.

Currently, at least 12 out of the T-20 law schools (including Penn, NYU, UC Berkeley, Northwestern, and more) allow students to receive academic credit for journal work, with countless other law schools offering credit, money, or both. As recently as this year, students at Georgetown Law and Stanford Law have made renewed pushes toward getting the credit they believe they rightfully deserve.

Today, many students at the Law School are strongly in favor of receiving journal credit, believing that their role in advancing legal scholarship warrants a greater reward than the not-yet-tangible career benefits associated with journal membership. Others feel less strongly, unsure of what credit would entail or how that would alter their current workloads and journal structures. 

At UVA, an institution bound by honor and shackled by tradition, any change, no matter how small, could disrupt the very foundation of this school. It remains to be seen whether the Law School community is comfortable with the status quo, or whether they would rather see “the march of legal thought” pass from the chairs of Slaughter Hall to the marks on one’s transcript.

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Kasey Michaud — Guest Contributor

mkp4ga@virginia.edu