Manitoba Law Journal, Underneath the Golden Boy
The purpose of the course is to give students experience with legal research, primarily by being actively involved with the production of the Manitoba Law Journal program, which is the most prolific in Canada. Dimensions of the MLJ include studying courts and tribunals, legislation and public policy, Indigenous law, the past, present and future of the legal profession, oral histories and more recently integrating with the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law.
Students are always involved in the editorial process, including inviting submissions, screening them, coordinating internal and external peer reviews, working with the authors on revisions and copy editing. Often students are involved in creation as well as editing of content, including research in connection with creating conferences and symposiums or helping to research or write publishable material.
The instructors are aiming to add further value to the student experience by adding more lectures and workshops about legal research to the program. They will also require students to product (and this may often be in collaboration with other students) a reflection paper on some emerging area with legal journals and legal scholarships, such as the emergence of blogs, the role of legal scholarship in court decisions and so on.
Students are expected, through the two terms, to put in about 120 works of work (about 5 hours a week, both terms) including meeting time. Students are asked to keep time sheets in this regard. Meetings will be regularly held in the Monday slot, and sometimes on Wednesdays, and students are expected to be available for both as necessary. Some meetings may be by distance technology, others in person.
Students who have completed Scholarly Publications I may, with the permission of the instructor, take Scholarly Publications II.