Dear Readers,
Welcome to the eighth print edition—Vol. 5, No. 1—of the Claremont Journal of Law and Public Policy (CJLPP)! After reviewing many highly-qualified submissions, the editorial team is delighted to feature a number of especially stimulating papers in this issue. These cover a range of domestic and international topics in law and public policy, from U.S. sports law to Chinese health care policies. Additionally, we are glad to share with you two exclusive interview articles, where you will learn about Ambassador Cameron Munter’s view on the new era of diplomacy and Prof. John Yoo’s perspective on war in the modern era. For entries from our blog as well as submissions from across the U.S. and overseas, please be sure to visit our website at www.5clpp.com.
I am writing this Letter in early August, by which point our editorial board has finalized all selected submissions, having worked with the authors on an one-on-one basis. A huge thank-you here goes out to the gifted writers; our Chief Operating Officer (former senior editor) Greer Levin; senior editors Audrey Jang, Désirée Santos, Emily Zheng, Isaac Cui, and Jerry Yan; interview editor Matilda Msall; blog editors Kyla Eastling and John Nikolaou; publisher and webmaster Alice Zhang, as well as our new design editor Noah Levine.
It is particularly worth mentioning that CJLPP writers, business directors, and designers alike have also actively continued developing their own projects over a productive and creativity-filled summer. For me all summer, there has seldom been a day when I do not wake up to be greeted by at least a couple of CJLPP-related emails. For the first time, the CJLPP has regularly released new articles throughout the summer to provide our readers with insightful analyses on current and ongoing issues in the legal and policy realms. It has been fun collaborating remotely, yet consistently, with some of our wonderful returning staff writers—James McIntyre, Gabe Magee, Maïmouna Diarra, Helen Guo, Delaney Hewitt, Kaela Cote-Stemmermann, Nicole Hsu, and William Shi—and guest contributors on various articles over the past couple of months. Concurrently, our passionate business directors—Franco Liu, Kim Tran, and Ali Kapadia—working closely with Greer, who now oversees the business side of the Journal, have a series of exciting events and projects planned for the Claremont community for the 2017-18 academic year. Meanwhile, we are all eagerly looking forward to meeting our newest writers this autumn—many have already started brainstorming topics.
I sincerely congratulate the entire team on all the collective endeavors and, as always, cannot be prouder to see the fruits of everyone’s hard work. More importantly, I am truly touched by the genuine enthusiasm that our members share in learning from each other as the Journal grows and evolves over the years.
Towards the end of this issue, you will find a very special Letter from our founder and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Byron Cohen (CMC ’16), who continues to be a caring mentor and ever-so-inspiring friend to all of us. I highly recommend reading Byron’s powerful reflections on what he calls “an origin story”—one that underscores the role that meaningful conversations on law and public policy play in allowing our democracy to grow and thrive. We hope that our Journal has contributed to initiating some of these important conversations.
It is always heartening to see students perusing copies of the Journal in physics lounges, inevitably joining the mighty league of law and policy nerds, and to overhear breakfast conversations about well-worn copies of the CJLPP awaiting their next readers inside Carnegie bathrooms… When our founding members launched the Journal in 2013, our website attracted 3,000+ views that year; in the first 7 months of 2017 alone, we have generated 13,000+ views from different parts of the world.
Of course, it is not only our readership that matters to us. The process of working with like-minded peers is at the very core of what we do. Today, the CJLPP is not only a 5C club, but also one that extends far beyond. I am thrilled to announce that together with our undergraduate law journal partners from 10 universities (including UPenn, Dartmouth, Williams, UToronto, and McGill) across the U.S. and Canada, we will be ready to launch the Intercollegiate Law Journal (ILJ) very soon. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for more information.
As always, I would like to end my Letter by thanking our faculty advisor, Prof. Amanda Hollis-Brusky, for her continued guidance. Our journal is certainly also indebted to the Salvatori Center for its support over the years, and of course, to all of our readers, partners, alumni, prospective members, and other supporters. If you enjoy reading our articles and would like to share your own writing, keep in mind that the CJLPP always welcomes submissions to our blog and future print editions. Please refer to the “Submissions” page on our website for details. In addition, for our Claremont readers, if you feel that you could be a valuable addition to our team, I invite you to visit our “Hiring” page for potential openings or email us at info.5clpp@gmail.com.
Happy Reading!
With Warmest Regards,
April Xiaoyi Xu
Editor-in-Chief
