Topic Selection Guidelines

Choosing the right topic is very important. You are going to be living with your topic choice for many months, so choose carefully. When considering topics, keep the following guidelines in mind.

1. Pacific Rim-Related: Your comment must deal with an issue in the Pacific Rim region – either a Pacific Rim country directly, or a legal body, issue, or decision dealing with at least one Pacific Rim country.

a. Pacific Rim Countries: Traditionally, the relevant area was limited to East Asia, Southeast Asia, Russia and Oceania. This year we have decided to expand the permissible area on an experimental basis. Central America and South America are acceptable as long as there is a strong connection to the Pacific Rim (meaning that there must be relevance or significant implications for the Pacific Rim region as a whole, some parts of it, or some processes that take place in it).

b. International Waters: International waters off acceptable Pacific Rim countries are included in our geographic scope.

2. Timely: There is no exact cut-off date to indicate when a topic is not timely, but it should be recent enough that there is still a general interest in the subject.

3. Novel: Some issues have been written about so thoroughly that another piece on the same topic will not be interesting. This isn’t to say that you can’t write about an issue that has been discussed by others – it only means that you must have something new to add to the literature. As long as you give the issue your own twist, most topics should be fine.

4. Substantiated: On the other hand, you shouldn’t select a topic that is so novel that there is no supporting authority. A PacRim comment generally requires at least 200 footnotes, incorporating around 100 sources, and should rely on a wide variety of sources.

a. Preemption: You do not want to go through the whole process of completing your comment, only to find out that it can’t be published because someone else has published on the same topic. Topic proposals will be vetted and go through a preemption check, but be sure to do your own search.

5. Well-Defined: Your comment should focus on a narrow issue. While a means to achieve world peace would be nice, please don’t bite off more than you can chew. PacRim comments are normally 25-30 pages in length, and if you write too much, it will only get edited out.

6. Assertive: A PacRim comment is not a book report. It is easy to get carried away discussing background issues and the relevant authority, but it’s imperative that your comment asserts a solution, position, etc. The general rule of thumb is that your argument should make up half of your paper, so be sure to pick a topic that you have some opinion about.

7. Interesting: Be sure to pick a topic that you are personally interested in – it makes the writing and editing process much less painful! It is also important to consider our audience when selecting your topic. Because our goals include maintaining and increasing subscriptions, it is vital for PacRim comments to be useful to our readers.

Note: The topic development process can be difficult and time-consuming. If you have any questions, feel free to ask Jolene (jlisa@u.washington.edu) or any other PacRim member. After your topic proposals are due, you must meet with Jolene at least once to discuss your topic selection, but she is also available earlier in the process to provide help or advice.

Available Resources

1. Topics Binder: We have been collecting interesting news stories and other articles that have the potential to lead to viable topics. They are kept in the topics binder. Feel free to use any article that you come across, but keep in mind that they are only supposed to lead you to a topic, and are not topics in and of themselves.

2. Faculty Surveys: The faculty have been surveyed about subjects they think would make interesting topics for PacRim comments. These surveys are kept in the topic development binder.

3. News: Reading the news is a great way find an interesting and timely topic. BBC News and the Washington Post normally have a variety of international stories.

4. Lexis and Westlaw: The Current Awareness and Eclipse functions in Lexis, and the Westlaw Bulletin and Topical Highlights in Westlaw, are particularly useful. Also, both databases contain news files, but the ones in Lexis are more extensive.

5. Law Review Articles: Recent law reviews may raise interesting questions but not deal with them; leaving them open as potential topics. Additionally, reviewing articles on similar topics will give you a sense of what aspect of an issue has not been addressed in the literature.

6. Lawtopic.org: This website is a clearinghouse of ideas for law paper. The topics are submitted by professors, judges, and attorneys. The topics are organized by subject matter.

7. Legal Publications: Magazines and newsletters published by various bar associations may contain potential topics.

8. LLM Students: We are fortunate to have a strong LLM program which brings attorneys from foreign countries to study at UWLS. We will be having a few social events with the LLM students, which will provide you with excellent opportunities to talk to them about legal issues in their countries of origin.

9. Casebooks: Some casebooks have relevant notes regarding jurisdictional differences.