About Agora

Background Stanford Agora is an exclusively online journal that seeks to enrich legal discourse by creating a forum for the discussion of vital legal issues by lawyers and non-lawyers alike. "Agora" is the ancient Greek word for "marketplace". The Greek Agora served as a forum for philosophical discussion and debate. Today the desire for intense intellectual interaction has not waned, but the forum for discussion has moved: today's agora is the Internet. This technology provides, not only global connectivity, but also freedom from the prison of the written word. Capitalizing on this revolutionary platform, Stanford Agora supplements traditional written content with multimedia texts and interactive elements.

To subscribe to our mailing list send an email to stanfordagora@lists.stanford.edu.

Audience Stanford Agora's primary audience is the legal and academic community. However, just as the agora was a public forum for discussion, Stanford Agora hopes to attract a wide variety of users, extending beyond the traditional law journal audience. Our goal is to challenge the user's previous concepts about a particular issue, whether they are law professor, a sociologist or a freelance writer. Articles are generally shorter (about 5 to 30 pages) and more accessible to those without legal training than are conventional law review articles.

Format Each year Stanford Agora posts a symposium volume on a particular issue. Past issues have centered on Socrates, Personhood and Legal Pedagogy. The content appears exclusively on-line and is archived on our web site. PDF files of the written content are available for download.

Submission We encourage the submission of traditional written articles as well as multimedia texts such as audio interviews, video clips, photographs and even songs that address our symposium topic. All content should be an original work of innovative scholarship that is thoughtfully executed, well-reasoned, and most importantly interesting.

Editing Process All content is edited in accordance with high editorial standards. Each article goes through two phases of substantive textual editing - a dynamic process between a Lead Editor and the Stanford Agora staff. When initially submitted, complete citations must be included for all published sources, facts and statistics. The staff will with check all citations and if necessary convert them into Bluebook format (the Bluebook is the uniform citation system used by the legal community). Publication of accepted articles is always contingent on an edit that is received on time and is mutually acceptable to the author and Stanford Agora.

2002-2003 Symposium - Legal Geographies. The symposium topic for our next volume, Legal Geographies, will address the importance of space, locality and geography in the law. To submit an article for Stanford Agora's next symposium volume, send the article with a cover letter to stanfordagora@lists.stanford.edu. Submissions will be accepted until November 1, 2002.