Writing Competition – Cornell Law Review

Cornell 1L Students:

The 2026 Joint Journal Writing Competition for current Cornell 1L students will begin in May. Current 1L students will have a set amount of time (generally a few days) to complete each section during a window to be announced soon.

Prospective Transfer Students:

The 2026 Writing Competition for transfer students will announced closer to summer, but usually takes place in early August.

Questions

If you have any questions about the Cornell Joint Journal Writing Competition, please email Ryan Yoo at rjy36@cornell.edu.

Current Print Issue

Moving Forward from Brackeen and Solutions for the Greater Efficacy of the Indian Child Welfare Act

Jeena Patel

J.D. Candidate, Cornell Law School, 2026; B.A. in Political Science, Boston University, 2021. Firstly, the author thanks the editors and board members of Cornell Law Review. The author would like to thank Professor Robert Odawi Porter for teaching a life-changing course on Indigenous Law. The author would also like to thank Kathryn E. Fort, whose knowledge, insights, and passion for ICWA made this Note possible.

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, enacted to protect Native American children from being removed from their tribes, was recently upheld in 2023 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Haaland v. Brackeen in the face of considerable challenge. Through analyzing the upholding of ICWA and its ramifications, this Note seeks to examine how…

The Unpropertied Internet

Nicholas J. Nugent

Assistant Professor of Law, University of Tennessee. This Article benefited from presentations at New York University, Wake Forest University, the University of Arizona, the University of Richmond, and the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools in Washington, D.C. In addition to helpful comments from participants in those events, I would like to thank Joshua Fairfield, Aaron Perzanowski, Asaf Lubin, James Grimmelmann, Yaft Lev-Aretz, Maurice Stucke, Gregory Stein, and Gary Pulsinelli for their helpful comments and suggestions. Thanks to Daniel Mendoza for helpful research assistance and to the editors at the Cornell Law Review for fantastic work getting this Article into shape for publication.

It has often been said that the internet lacks public property. Unlike the offline world, denizens of cyberspace cannot gather in the digital equivalent of public parks, cannot shame websites by picketing on adjacent cyber-sidewalks, and cannot loiter in online streets and alleys if they lack a cyber-place of their own. Yet scant attention has…

Proportional Possession

Allyson E. Gold & Joseph A. Singleton

Allyson E. Gold is a Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law. Joseph A. Singleton is the Health Law & Policy Fellow at Wake Forest University School of Law. Thank you to workshop attendees at the New York University Clinical Writers Workshop, the faculty of NOVA Southeastern Shepard Broad College of Law, and Association for Law and Property Scholars conference attendees for invaluable feedback. We are grateful to John Knox, Jessica Shoemaker, Jenny Russell, Hano Ernst, Michel Vols, and Rachael Walsh for extremely helpful comments and conversations.

American eviction proceedings are governed by a fusion of property and contract law. The law’s narrow understanding of eviction ignores the importance of a dwelling place to its occupants. Property is not merely land or a structure on that land; it is a home with the power to shape communities, social relationships, and human values….

Rethinking Plyler: Preserving the Right to Education for Undocumented Children

Meghan Brady-Fuchsman

J.D., Cornell Law School, 2026; B.S. in Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, 2023; Executive General Editor, Cornell Law Review Vol. 111.

In the summer of 1977, several families living in Tyler, Texas received a letter informing them that their children were no longer eligible to attend public school—unless they could pay $1,000 in tuition. Nine-year-old Alfredo Lopez should have been starting second grade, but his family could not afford the fee. What set him apart from…

Income Taxation and the Regulation of Supreme Court Justices’ Conduct

Omri Marian

Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law. I received excellent written comments from Swethaa Ballakrishnen, Joshua Blank, Alex Camacho, Adam Chodorow, Bridget Crawford, Victor Fleischer, Sarah Lawsky, Leslie Samuels, Song Richardson, Gabe Roth, and Ari Waldman. Any errors or omissions are my own.

In 2023, investigative journalists reported multiple instances where billionaires showered Supreme Court Justices with lavish gifts. Previously undisclosed luxury fishing trips, private jet travel, and yacht cruises ignited popular and scholarly debates about Congress’s role in regulating Justices’ conduct. This Article explains how income taxation can, and should, be used to regulate judicial misconduct where…

Current Online Issue

Copyright’s Invisible Hand: Subsidizing America’s Cultural Institutions

Guy A. Rub

Vincent J. Marella Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law.

The doctrine of copyright exhaustion conceals a substantial and underappreciated subsidy at the heart of American copyright law. For more than a century, it has operated as a deliberate congressional scheme transferring billions of dollars in value to cultural institutions, such as libraries, museums, and galleries. This Essay reconceptualizes copyright law as a system of…

The Beginnings Of The One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Placing The 2017 Tax Cuts And Jobs Act In Historical Perspective

Amanda Borwegen & Ajay K. Mehrotra

J.D. 2025, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; B.A. 2019, Washington & Jefferson College. Stanford Clinton Sr. and Zylpha Kilbride Clinton Research Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; Affiliated Professor of History, Northwestern University; and Research Professor, American Bar Foundation. An earlier version of this essay was presented at the 2025 American Association of Law School Conference. We thank the participants at that conference for their useful feedback, and to those colleagues and friends who reviewed and discussed drafts of this essay including Jennifer Bird-Pollan, Ari Glogower, Christopher Hanna, Andy Koppelman, Philip Postlewaite, Samy Abdelsalam, and Maggie Amen. We are grateful to Noah Taran for excellent research assistance, and to Jeena Patel and the staff of the Cornell Law Review for their assistance. All errors, of course, remain our own.

On July 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This new law was built on the foundations of its immediate predecessor,the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). This Essay examines the historical roots and contemporary implications of these two laws. It argues that both acts…