Carleton’s Law and Legal Studies Society has revived the annual Carleton University Journal of Legal Studies, launching the publication Nov. 13, according to editor-in-chief Carly Jacuk.
The last journal was uploaded online in 2011 and there hasn’t been a volume since. Jacuk said the 2014 issue will be “very different than the last publication” and will have an undergraduate focus.
“I think it’s nice that the undergraduate students are reclaiming it,” the fourth-year law student said. “We’re trying to give it a young, contemporary feel whereas the other [volumes] have more of a professional journal-type feel to them.”
The rejigged journal will have a new archival process, be more organized, and easier to locate since the last volume “has kind of been lost somewhere on the Internet,” she said.
The journal takes an interdisciplinary approach to law and will cover a wide range of topics—anything from politics to psychology to the criminal justice system.
“We’re trying to get an array of different articles rather than focusing on one area,” she said.
“The articles in this year’s journal all touch on injustices within the Canadian criminal justice system,” she said. “They really reflect all the research that’s going on in the department and all the different courses that are available to law students.”
Jacuk said students do not need to be in the legal studies program to get involved, but they do need to be in an undergraduate program. The articles are peer-reviewed by undergraduate students as well.
“It’s really nice for undergraduate students at Carleton to be able to say, ‘This is what we’re doing at Carleton,’” she said.
While the journal is student-run, professor Stacy Douglas acts as the faculty liaison.
Douglas said she feels “entirely proud and very impressed” with this year’s journal.
“I think it functions as a kind of symbol to those looking at the department and at Carleton more generally to see the excellent work that’s being done by our undergraduate students,” she said. “I hope that it carries on a legacy of highlighting the heights that our students can go to when they’re pushed to excel and it will be bench mark for students to strive towards during their undergraduate degree.”
Although Jacuk and her co-editors are graduating this year, she said she hopes the journal will continue and is looking forward to what comes next.
“I always find things get bigger and better as people continue to work on them and as more heads come into the mix,” she said. “It’s really exciting. It’ll be nice to see it within the next even five years.”
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