Next week is thet start of the law review write-on competition. More work for everyone (most of all the law review members who have to score the entries) but it's a much fairer way to select people than a grade-on.

A grade-on means the top 10% or so of the class, based on legal writing grades or overall GPA, is automatically promoted to law review. This is a form of regressive taxation. People can do poorly on exams for a variety of reasons having nothing to do with the skills they need on a law review. So the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

People who got lower grades have already been penalized once for their performance; making them ineligible for law review with a grade-on just penalizes them again for the same crime.

That said I'm somewhat surprised that only 1/3 of the 1L class participates in the competition. What's the downside? I mean, aside from spending half your spring break on what amounts to a 40 hr take home exam? That's about as much fun as you can have with your pants on.

08 Mar 05