The first issue of the student-run Brandeis University Law Journal will be released May 3, founding Editor in Chief Judah Marans ’11 said.

The law journal is one of the few undergraduate law publications in the country and features articles from students, professors and University President Jehuda Reinharz. The first issue includes a foreword from Harvard Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz.

Marans, the chief justice of the Student Judiciary, explained that he came up with the idea of creating a law journal at Brandeis during the summer when thinking about the fact that undergraduates cannot submit articles to law publications run by law schools.

The Law Journal is now an annual publication and receives funding from the Finance Board. Copies will be free for Brandeis students when they are released next month.

Commenting on the challenges of founding a law journal without the resources and legal education that law schools provide, “If it’s something that you’re passionate enough about, then even if you have limited resources, you will find those resources and make the best of them,” said Marans.

Director of Communications for the journal Mark Garibynan ’11 said “its not really about the resources you have or don’t have. It’s about being resourceful.”

One of the challenges that students faced this year was learning the proper method of legal citation, Copy Editor Jennifer Craig ’11 said.

“We had to acquire skills that undergraduates really don’t have,” Craig said.

But there are also advantages unique to the Brandeis Law Journal, Marans said, explaining that many law school publications do not publish features, only articles strictly based in legal analysis.

“We’re publishing [some] articles and features that directly relate to Brandeis,” he said. The Brandeis Law Journal can “publish the kind of things that a law review could never publish.”

The Journal includes a mix of articles from professors and students and Marans said, “it shows that the study of law need not be for a select few.”

Craig said that she found her experience as a first-year student working on the law journal very rewarding and enjoyed the process of learning to work together with the other editors.

“[The opinions are] not always the same, but everyone has a passion for what they’re doing,” Craig said.

The journal was able to recruit many of its members through activities fairs and contains an editorial board and an administrative staff.

Some articles in the first issue include one on “Constitutional and Talmudic Law,” written by Marans, a feature called “‘Sexting,’ You, & the Law,” and a concluding article by Prof. Richard Gaskins, director of the Legal Studies program.

Marans said that the Journal might eventually be sold on the Internet and in the campus bookstore. He explained that one of its future goals is to be published once a semester.

Garibynan said that the success of the Journal could be attributed to the persistence of all of its members.