Legal History “Cohen” Essay Competition

The Legal History and Rare Books Special Interest Section (LHRB) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), in cooperation with Gale Learning and Research Solutions, Cengage Learning, is conducting its 8th Annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition.  Full- and part-time students currently enrolled in accredited graduate programs in law, history, library science or related fields are eligible to enter.  Essays may be on any topic related to legal history, rare law books, or legal archives.  Criteria on which papers will be judged include originality of topic or approach, quality and depth of research and analysis, clarity of presentation, and contribution to the field.  The winner will receive a $500 prize from Gale Cengage Learning and up to $1,000 for costs of attending the July 2016 AALL Annual Meeting in Chicago, as well as the opportunity to present the winning essay at the AALL Annual Meeting.  Authors of the winning and runner-up essays will also be invited to publish their essays in the LHRB’s Unbound:  An Annual Review of Legal History and Rare Books.  The Competition electronic submission deadline is 11:59pm, Monday, 18 April 2016.

Full Competition details and Application Form are available at the LHRB SIS Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition Web page.  Questions can be sent to Frederick Dingledy (fwding@wm.edu), Senior Reference Librarian, College of William & Mary Law School, or Timothy G. Kearley (TKearley@uwyo.edu), Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Wyoming College of Law.

The Competition is named for Morris L. Cohen, who was Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School and recognized as “one of the towering figures of late 20th century law libraries.”  His scholarly work  focused on legal research, rare books, and historical bibliography.