Author: Lena Smith
The Occidental Undergraduate Law Review (OULR), scheduled to appear in spring or summer of 2014, will be a published journal in which students can present their own analysis of issues related to the law. Though not an official club at Occidental College, the OULR will be primarily student run. Politics major Trace Larabee (junior), the journal’s chief officer, plans to publish one edition annually.
Larabee began envisioning the journal over the summer and has since worked with the Career Development Center and Occidental College students and faculty to develop the idea. He has worked closely with politics professor Thalia Gonzalez, looking at law reviews published by other schools to find models and planning how OULR will be edited and published.
OULR provides an opportunity to practice analyzing the law with depth that is largely new to Occidental. The only classes in which students write about the law are the few devoted to constitutional law, according to Politics major Jill Goatcher, a senior editor of OULR.
“Having a stronger law community will strengthen people who are interested in continuing in law,” Goatcher said.
Papers written for class and independent work will be accepted. The call for admissions will be in October to allow writers and editors time to develop the quality of the writing and analysis in the articles. Larabee hopes for “originality and in-depth analysis” in the articles.
The only topic restriction will be that each article must somehow tie into the law. Writers can analyze philosophy, history of law, or any number of topics, according to Larabee.
“You don’t have to talk about a specific case and why this was wrong and this was right, you can really connect what your passionate about, what you’ve experienced, and find a way to tie it into something that pertains to law,” Larabee said.
OULR also has plans for a blog that will feature additional law-related commentary. It will be open to writing from anyone, encouraging students to express ideas and opinions about the aspects of the law that most interest them. OULR plans to garner alumni support and participation as well.
Larabee serves as the head of the OULR – he oversees the process of selecting, editing and publishing articles. Larabee will also supervise outreach efforts carried out by student representatives and business, which will be conducted by Business Manager and politics major Nick Sweeney (senior).
The OULR consists of eight senior editors, a group of junior editors, an editorial board of faculty advisers and business and outreach teams. The students and faculty represent many departments, including politics, biology and philosophy.
Senior editors were selected from a group of applicants based on experience with writing and analyzing legal action. They are all juniors or seniors. Most have either had internships where they gained experience with the law or work as writing mentors at Occidental, according to Larabee.
After the call for submissions, the senior editors will work with the writers to create the best possible articles for OULR. They may also write one-page commentaries about recent legal proceedings. Each senior editor will be paired with a junior editor to help prepare him or her for the role next year, according to Goatcher.
“A senior editor is a mentorship as well as an editorial position,” Goatcher said.
The faculty on the editorial board will assist the editors if they run into difficulties selecting and editing articles; for example, if two are similar or if there are questions of quality. However, following the model of law reviews at other schools, their influence will be minimal, according to Gonzalez. Students will ultimately shape the ideas and writing that appear in the journal.
“It is an opportunity to take writing and scholarship to the next level,” Gonzalez said.
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