Melbourne University Law Review vs Melbourne Journal of International Law (Suzanne)

Today I got an email in my inbox with the following content:

Dear Law Student,

The Melbourne Law School Student Centre has identified you as a student with an excellent academic record, and we write to invite you to apply for membership of the Editorial Board of the Melbourne University Law Review in 2008.

Please see attached an invitation and application pack, including a practical exercise which must be completed and returned to the Review office (or slid under the door if the office is unattended) by 5:00 pm on Friday 14 March 2008.

This makes me laugh a little, because I have an H2B average in law, which is pretty good, but not really something that I would call an ‘excellent academic record’ by a long shot. I wonder if they factored in my music grades. That would probably explain it.

Anyway. There have been posters all over law school (can I still call it the Faculty of Law if I’m LLB, or do I have to refer to its new name of the Melbourne Law School?) for the Melbourne University Law Review, as well as the Melbourne Journal of International Law. Basically, both are academic journals publishing content by legal academics and professors, but with the editorial side run by law students. If you get onto the editorial board, you spend a lot of time editing footnotes. In return, you get a line that looks good on your resume, and, occasionally, the chance to hobnob with prominent members of the legal profession at cocktail parties. Selection is based on academics, and a footnote-editing test. The Law Review runs all sorts of articles, MJIL runs only international law articles.

So I picked up a copy of MJIL’s application on Monday, because I really liked the international law component of Principles of Public Law last year. But now I’m really tempted to apply for Law Review as well. I can’t do them both because the time commitment would be far too much, especially since I’m already on the Australian Journal of Labour Law (which unlike MJIL or the Review, is edited by professors, but employs students as assistants). So I need to decide which I prefer. Or, I could apply to both and reject one later, but then I need to complete two different applications and the editing exercise that has to be included is kind of time consuming.

Hmm.