Prospective Members

The Journal seeks highly motivated individuals who have demonstrated academic excellence, exceptional legal writing ability, and an interest in the broad and ever-evolving field of human rights.

The Journal primarily selects its staff membership from the spring writing competition that takes place after spring finals of a student’s first year. In extending membership offers, the Journal considers the quality of the writing submission and the student’s first year grades. Each year the Journal extends approximately 20 to 25 membership offers.

The Journal also reserves approximately 5 to 10 positions for write-on candidates. The write-on competition takes place in the fall of a student’s second year. Write-on candidates are expected to fulfill the duties of staff members, including the production of a quality manuscript of publishable quality and completion of source-and-cite assignments. Write-on candidates are evaluated on the basis of their manuscript and source-and-cite assignments.

Students who accept offers for membership on the Northwestern Journal of Human Rights become staff members for the duration of their second year. Second-year JHR staff members will have three primary responsibilities: (1) produce a written work of publishable quality that may be submitted for publication in the spring of the student’s second year; (2) participate in a 2L work-team where the student will be responsible for either implementation of a JHR Human Rights Conference, article solicitation, or website development; and (3) source and citation checking. In the spring of their second year, second-year staff members become associate editors or are elected to positions on the editorial board for their third-year.

For more information on Northwestern Journal of Human Rights membership, please contact Vrinda Agarwal (vrinda.agarwal@law.northwestern.edu) or Aparajita Pande (aparajita.pande@law.northwestern.edu).