“Assignment Requirements
These are the instructions.
You should address the most important or significant issue in the case-in-chief for example focus your discussion on unsettled areas of the law or on the courts attempt to resolve a previously unsettled legal principle. If there are several significant issues in the case-in-chief select the one most worthy of analysis. It is not necessarily a mistake to select one issue over another as long as you support your choice with valid reasoning. Treat subordinate issues textually if they relate to the major issue or discuss them in footnotes.
A Case Comment is a formal piece of legal analysis but this does not mean that it must be dull. Do not feel that you must follow some preconceived notion of scholarly writing. Please try to avoid submitting a Case Comment that is uniform or verbose. Instead strive to use clear and concise language and a simple sentence structure. Also while reading samples of published Case Comments can be of great use do not try to imitate the published work at the expense of your own original expression.
Strive for coherent paragraph organization so that you develop your ideas in logical progression. If a person unfamiliar with your topic cannot immediately understand your Case Comment then there is a flaw in the papers organization. The Honor Boards suggest that you work from an outline and make every entry in the outline a complete sentence. Rearrange paragraphs so that your text flows from premise to conclusion without tangents or illogical interruptions. Rearrange sentences within each paragraph so that each paragraph becomes a satisfying logical unit. Every paragraph in a Case Comment should contain at least three sentences but no more than six sentences.
High attention to detail will inevitably result in the best quality work. Read the case-in-chief as many times as possible and refer to it frequently while writing your Case Comment. Look up each citation in the Bluebook as you write the footnote to ensure that the citation is complete and that the signal order and typeface are accurate. Mastering the Bluebook at an early stage is important to succeeding in the competition. Each Staff Member must accurately apply Bluebook rules while preparing articles for publication.
You might find that writing your first Case Comment is a slow and frustrating process. Writing can be difficult and you must expend a great deal of energy in writing and rewriting before you can present your thoughts in precise correct form. Maintain a positive attitude throughout the entire process and stay as organized as possible.
B. Getting Started
Writing a Case Comment within two weeks is feasible with good organization time management and perseverance. The following suggestions may be helpful in getting started:
1) Read the case-in-chief several times (majority concurring and dissenting opinions).
2) Read the cases and/or statutes relied upon by the court in the case-in-chief including the cases in the procedural history.
3) Search Westlaw LexisNexis the library and other resources for additional cases statutes or secondary sources (including but not limited to treatises law review articles periodicals or commentaries) that will aid in your understanding and analysis of the case-in-chief.
4) Budget your time.
C. General Organization Case Comment
A Case Comment is an analysis of a recent court decision that represents a change modification or significant interpretation of the law. Case Comments contain six sections that are separate and distinct from each other. Do not develop information in one section if it properly belongs in another.
The following outline describes each section of a Case Comment and suggests the number of paragraphs that should be devoted to a given section. Please note that every paragraph of a Case Comment regardless of the section it is in must contain at least three sentences but no more than six. Remember to footnote every sentence except those in your introduction and conclusion.
Please note that you must cite to a minimum of eight (8) primary sources and a minimum of six (6) secondary sources. Generally a final draft should include approximately two pages of footnotes for every page of text.
The stylistic requirements for the competition piece are as follows:
Typed on standard 8.5 x 11 white paper
Double-spaced text with single-spaced footnotes
1 margins on all four edges
Do not justify the right margin
12-point Times New Roman font
Page numbers at the bottom center of each page
Use the footnote function (use the insert reference Footnotes function
The following outline provides a helpful guide to organizing a Case Comment. Do not label these sections when you prepare your Case Comment.
Heading/Title
1) General field of law (e.g. criminal law constitutional law tort law);
2) Concise statement describing the case in a phrase of 15 words or less;
3) Name of case and citation followed by a period.
Example: Constitutional LawHarmless-Error Analysis Applies to Erroneously Admitted Coerced ConfessionsArizona v. Fulminante 499 U.S. 279 (1991).
Introduction (first paragraph 3-4 sentences)
***The introduction for the piece you will be submitting does NOT need footnotes. This is a departure from a traditional Case Comment (i.e. the type you would find in the Suffolk University Law Review) which will have a heavily footnoted introduction. ***
1) Statement of broad field of law;
2) Identification of sub-area of law;
3) Name of court name of case and a statement of issue considered by the court; and
4) Concise statement of the holding of the case.
Facts (1-2 paragraphs)
1) Factual events leading up to the litigation (cite to case-in-chief or lower-court decision in footnotes);
2) Posture and result of lower-court decision (cite to lower-court decisions or case-in-chief in footnotes); you may cite any statute relied upon by the court but do not present any in-depth history in this section; and
3) The last sentence should contain a more detailed but not repetitious statement of the holding.
This section should identify the parties to the litigation and all pertinent facts. Only the most basic facts should be included in the text. Consciously avoid exhaustively reiterating the facts of the case-in-chief. Be concise. You may expand additional facts in the footnotes if they are relevant to the decision. Disposition in the lower courts should be discussed with a brief statement of the basis of those rulings. Relegate any extended discussion of lower court rulings if necessary to the footnotes.
This is an important section and you should organize it carefully. It must contain all of the facts necessary to an understanding of both the courts and the writers analysis. It is inappropriate to wait until later sections of the Case Comment to introduce key facts.
History (2-3 paragraphs)
1) This section should be objective;
2) If the case raises several issues or facets of issues try to organize your paragraphs in order to group the issues logically in different paragraphs;
3) Include all law considered by the majority and any dissenters in your case-in-chief so that you may refer to it later in your analysis; include any law you think the court should have considered but did not; and
4) Develop thorough complete and lengthy footnotes in this section; it is particularly appropriate to have string cites with clear explanatory blurbs;
5) Generally you should use blurbs for all citations in the history section; and
6) Do not cite to the case-in-chief or lower court decisions in this section.
Thoroughly discuss the background and development of the law in this section. Keep in mind however that you are not writing a brief. You should only name landmark cases in the text. Reserve the text for an expository discussion of the history of the law and cite important cases in the footnotes. Mention any cases you use in either the facts or the history section when discussing the courts analysis or your own analysis.
Courts Holding and Reasoning (1-2 paragraphs)
1) Name the case-in-chief again so the reader knows that you are returning to it;
2) Explain how the court applied the precedent to the facts of the case-in-chief; and
3) Be objective.
The purpose of the first sentence is to alert the reader that the focus of the paper is shifting from a discussion of the established law to a discussion of how the court applied the law to the facts before it. This section though a preface to your analysis is a separate and distinct section. Outline the logical steps the court took in reaching its holding and explain how its reasoning fits in with the previous section.
Without actually analyzing the case you should show for example how the case-in-chief fits in with your discussion of the law in your history section. The last sentence of this section should form a smooth and natural transition into your analysis by incorporating a result-oriented restatement of the holding.
Analysis (2-3 paragraphs)
1) Explain the merits and mistakes in the courts decision; and
2) Try to address each of the steps taken by the court as outlined in the Courts Reasoning section.
Among the questions you may choose to address in this portion are:
Did the courts holding solve the problem at bar?
Did the court misstate or misidentify the problem?
What alternative solutions were available?
Is the holding a complete departure from existing law?
Does it reinterpret existing law or create new law?
Is it a reaffirmation of principles previously discarded?
How might the holding affect future decisions?
What future litigation may reasonably be anticipated as a result of this decision?
What will be the impact of the decision on other jurisdictions?
Whereas you should write the previous sections objectively this section offers the writer the opportunity to express his or her own interpretation of what the court did or might have done. You may make predictions here but they must be the product of legal argument not mere opinion. Remember: you must footnote every proposition and substantiate it with good authority. Unsubstantiated speculation is of little value to the legal community.
Footnotes in the Analysis section may contain direct citations to the case-in-chief (majority concurrences and dissents) other cases and/or law review articles already mentioned in the history section; or you may simply use supra note to direct the reader to a discussion in prior footnotes (see sample Case Comment). DO NOT introduce any new sources in this section; all law and facts must have been introduced in a previous section.
Conclusion (1 paragraph)
1) Statement of the issue; and
2) Concise critique of courts analysis and holding.
You should not raise any new points in this section which should be brief. There is no need to be expansive because your analysis should make the conclusion self-evident. This section like the introduction need not contain footnotes.
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