From harvard-law-review-skills
Shapes prose and structure of Harvard Law Review pieces for a generalist, student-edited audience — clear introductions, disciplined Parts, and heavy-footnote register.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/harvard-law-review-skills:hlr-writing-styleThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
HLR prose must persuade a **generalist, student-edited** audience: the editors who screen and the readers
HLR prose must persuade a generalist, student-edited audience: the editors who screen and the readers across every legal field. The register is distinctive — long, formal, heavily footnoted Articles in which the text carries the argument and the footnotes carry the support and qualifications. This skill makes the piece readable, front-loaded, and legible past any one specialty.
By the end of the introduction the reader should know the problem, the claim, the stakes, and the roadmap — in that order, and early. Build the funnel:
| Belongs in the text | Belongs in the footnotes |
|---|---|
| The argument and its logic | Authority for each proposition (pincited) |
| The claim and the prescription | Qualifications, caveats, and side disputes |
| The hard case and its resolution | String cites, parentheticals, contrary authority |
| What a generalist must follow | What a specialist may want to verify |
The text should read as a clean argument even if a reader ignored the footnotes; the footnotes should let a skeptic verify every step. Argument that hides in footnotes is a structural error.
【Intro】problem → claim → contribution → payoff → roadmap? [Y/N each]
【Thesis placement】page 1-2? [Y/N]
【Text/footnote division】argument in text, support in notes? [Y/N]
【Terms of art】defined once, consistent? [Y/N]
【Cuts】throat-clearing / redundant recap removed? [Y/N]
【Next】hlr-placement-strategy → hlr-submission
../../resources/worked-examples/01-introduction.md — before→after HLR-style introduction../../resources/exemplars/library.md — real HLR pieces to study for register and structurenpx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin harvard-law-review-skillsRevises prose to match The Yale Law Journal house style: clear, generalist-legible legal writing with disciplined footnote-to-text balance.
Organizes a legal article's body into the doctrine → theory → prescription arc expected by Harvard Law Review. Useful when the thesis is set but the body sprawls or the prescription lacks a justifying diagnosis.
Academic legal writing style guide for law review articles and seminar papers, based on Volokh. Enforces citation rules, counterargument requirements, and docx template usage.