The Virginia Law Review (VLR) is excited to announce its Case Comment Competition.
This competition is open to all law students (including LLMs) who are currently enrolled at UVA law.
Up to three winning submissions will be published in a special online edition of the Virginia Law Review Online in the fall of 2026. Winning students will be extended an invitation to join the Virginia Law Review.
Topic & Length: Students are invited to write and submit a case comment on any case heard at the United States Supreme Court or any federal Circuit Court in the past two years, beginning January 1, 2024 and concluding in the summer of 2026. A list of cases heard during the Supreme Court’s October 2025 term can be found here.
For an example of a successful case comment, please see this comment. Successful comments will not simply describe a case, but engage in robust analysis of its reasoning to ultimately offer a novel legal insight, propose a resolution, and/or forecast any potential implications of the decision.
To get started, students may consider the following questions:
- Is the judgment right, but the reasoning is wrong? Is the judgment wrong, but the reasoning is right? Why?
- If the case creates a circuit split, how could it be resolved?
Deadline: All pieces must be submitted by August 3, 2026, at 11:59 p.m.
Submission Instructions: Submissions must be emailed to valawrev.online@gmail.com.
Rules: Comments shall be between 5,000 and 7,500 words, inclusive of footnotes. Please use double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font for the body of your submission. Please use single-spaced footnotes rather than endnotes for citations and references. All comments should be cited in proper Bluebook format.
Each individual may submit no more than one piece, and submissions must be previously unpublished. Jointly-written pieces up to two authors will be accepted. Students may not receive advising from VLR Online or the VLR Notes Department advisors on pieces submitted to the Competition. Pieces may reflect conversations and light comments from professors and other students. They should not, however, be edited by anyone other than the author(s).
All submissions must abide by these guidelines:
- The document should include a cover page containing:
- The title of the piece;
- A word count for the piece, both with and without footnotes.
- The file must be named with the title of the piece, and the subject line of the email must be “VLR Case Comment Competition.”
- Any identifying information must be removed from the body of the document as well as the personal information embedded in the digital file by following the instructions below. This includes removing identifying information typically included at the beginning of a Note in a * footnote. Correctly following all instructions will maintain each author’s anonymity.
- Word 2010, 2013, 2016:
- Go to File, select “Info”
- Click on “Check for Issues”
- Click on “Inspect Document”
- In the dialog box, click “Remove All” and close box
- Save document.
- Word for Mac 2016, 2018:
- Go to Tools
- Select “Protect Document” or select “Protect Document” button on Review tab
- Save document.
- Word 2010, 2013, 2016:
- In addition to the document above, all submissions must include the following information in a separate document, which is to be attached to the same email in .pdf format. The PDF should be titled “[Piece Title].Confidential”. This separate document should be a single page and include:
- Your name, phone number, e-mail address, and mailing address;
- The title of your submission; and
- A signed statement (an electronic signature will be accepted) that your piece was not heavily edited by anyone other than the author(s).
Any questions should be directed to VLR’s Online Development Editor, Madeline Kahl (umt9kx@virginia.edu).