Comment Topic Selection for Law Reviews: Topic Development

• A comment is a student-written, scholarly article that focuses on a single legal issue within a defined area of the law. 
• Your comment will provide a detailed analysis of an issue, and will includes cases, and possibly other primary law, and scholarly work. 

Here are a few citations to recent comments published in Marquette law journals that demonstrate topicality, relevance, and scholarly quality. This is not an exhaustive list, but these comments illustrate the goal of a student comment and show exemplary work done by your peers:

• 101 Marq. L. Rev. 821 (2018)
• 100 Marq. L. Rev. 627 (2016)
• 19 Marq. Intellectual Property L. Rev. 269 (2015)
• 19 Marq. Benefits & Soc. Welfare L. Rev. 85 (2017)

The MULS Scholarly Repository has digital issues of all published MULS law journals and MULS faculty scholarship.

• Show how insights from psychology, economics, sociology may contribute to resolving an issue

• Demonstrate how the new theory will resolve issues in a better way. Consider applying new theory and reasoning to   former cases/law. Paradigm change as a solution.​

Explore a comparative/multijurisdictional approach to resolving an issue.

• These are examples, not the entire field of ways to construct a comment idea.  You can learn about other models from reading good student comments.  Take some time to browse some significant law journals. 
• You will be writing a comment, not a case note.  A case note analyzes one case.  A traditional comment is a more thematic analysis of an issue, makes an argument, and employs more than one legal source.  Talk with your comment editor about these 
• Note: There are some labeling differences among law journals regarding student publications. For example, if you browse the Harvard Law Review, you will find that the student comments are called Notes – but they resemble the traditional comment. (Another difference at HLR is that individual student author credit is not given for the notes published in the review.) 

Choose a subject that interests you.  Example: Environment, Water Quality

Select a topic from within the subject area.  Example:  Runoff pollution in the groundwater of Wisconsin

Identify an issue.    Example: Manure contributes significantly to groundwater pollution in Wisconsin. Wisconsin agribusiness has relative freedom for large scale use of dry manure as fertilizer. Under current WI law, does the state adequately protect water sources exposed to agricultural pollutants?  And, should current law be changed, and if so, how?

Articulate a thesis.  As your preliminary research and analysis continues to focus and deepen, you will work out a very specific thesis about the legal problem you have defined and how to resolve it.  

Possible Frameworks for a Thesis:

•  This particular issue should be governed by a statute rather than case law. The legislature ought to enact the following statute.
•  This case/doctrine explains/contradicts other case/doctrine, but it strayed when applying/interpreting the law…

         A Breach of Trust: Rock-Koshkonong Lake District v .State Department of Natural Resources     and Wisconsin's Public Trust Doctrine

•  This statute/regulation/treaty is likely to have the following side effects . . . . It should be rejected or modified to say . . .

    Someone's Afoot: Wisconsin's Foreign Guardianship Transfer Law

•  Historical, philosophical, economic, psychological, or religious perspective on this law reveals that the law is flawed and should be changed in the following way(s)….