Office of Professional Development

The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University
and theAssociation of Family and Conciliation Courtspresent the eighth annual

Family Law Writing Competition

Hofstra Law and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) are sponsoring the seventh annual Family Law Writing Competition. The competition is run in cooperation with the editorial staff of the Family Court Review, which is the academic and research journal of  AFCC. The Family Court Review is an interdisciplinary and international journal published quarterly by Wiley and in cooperation with the Center for Children, Families, and the Law at Hofstra Law. The Family Court Review contributes to and facilitates discourse among the judicial, legal, mediation, mental health and social services communities.

Topics for Submission

The subject of entries may be within any area of family law, although topics that focus on international or interdisciplinary subjects of family law are especially encouraged. Articles should concentrate on a current legal issue and must have a strong foundation in legal research. Use of interdisciplinary sources may also be appropriate for many topics.

Entries will be judged on the quality of legal analysis, originality, depth or research, timeliness, creativity and format. The Family Court Review’s editors and a subcommittee of editorial board members will evaluate all articles.

Authorship

Submissions must be the work of one person. No joint authorships will be accepted, except articles written jointly by a law student and mental health, social science or other relevant graduate student. Submissions must be originally argued and researched legal papers. Hofstra Law students are ineligible to participate. Law students can be from any country. Advice and input from professors, judges and professionals in the field is allowed, but the author must research and write the entire article. Entries cannot be more than 25 double-spaced pages in length, including footnotes. Articles must be in Times New Roman, 12-point font, with 1-inch margins. Authors from the United States must comply with The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 20^th Edition. Authors from outside the United States must conform to the relevant legal-citation format commonly used in that country and must indicate the citation format used. The submitted article cannot be published elsewhere.

DUE DATE

Submissions must be received by February 1, 2017. The winners will be notified no later than April 15, 2017.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have questions, please contact the Managing Editor of the Family Court Review at fcr@hofstra.edu.

AWARDS

First Prize

·   $500 cash prize courtesy of the Center for Children, Families and the Law at Hofstra Law.

·   Certificate of recognition as first-place winner.

·   Consideration for publication of the article in the Family Court Review

·   Letter to the dean of the student’s law school.

·   One-year complimentary AFCC student membership, including a one-year subscription to the Family Court Review

OR

·   Complimentary conference registration to AFCC’s 54th Annual Conference, held May 31-June 3, 2017, in Boston. (Does not include hotel, transportation and food).

Honorable Mention

(Up to two)

·   $250 cash prize courtesy of the Center for Children, Families and the Law at Hofstra Law.

·   Certificate of recognition as the honorable-mention winner.

·   Consideration for publication of the article in the Family Court Review

·   Letter to the dean of the student’s law school.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

All submissions must be emailed as a Microsoft Word or PDF document to the Family Court Review at fcr@hofstra.edu. Hard copies are not permissible.