hlr-topic-selection
Use when choosing or sharpening a topic for a Harvard Law Review (HLR) Article, Essay, or Book Review so it is timely, generalist-legible, and placeable in the student-edited law-review market. Judges fit and timing; it does not run the preemption search (that is hlr-preemption-check) or draft the claim.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill hlr-topic-selection --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Topic Selection (hlr-topic-selection) HLR is a **generalist, student-edited** flagship. A topic succeeds when it is (1) of broad importance across legal fields, (2) **timely** — riding a live doctrinal, statutory, or social development — and (3) plausibly **placeable** given the seasons and the competition. The student editors who screen are smart generalists, not subfield specialists, so a topic that only a niche bar cares about is off-fit. ## When to trigger - Picking among several possible article ideas - A topic feels important to you but you cannot say why it matters to the whole legal academy - You are unsure whether the topic is "HLR-sized" (flagship) versus a specialty-journal fit - Timing: a new Supreme Court decision, circuit split, or statute just changed the landscape ## What makes an HLR-fit topic 1. **Live and consequential.** It engages a current circuit split, a recent Supreme Court term, a new statute or regulation, or an unsettled doctrine that courts and scholars are actively fighting over. 2. **Generalist stakes.** A constitutional-law editor and an IP editor can both see why it matters — the topic touches structural questions (institutional roles, rights, the
- When to trigger
- What makes an HLR-fit topic
- Fit calibration by piece type
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Timing the topic against the seasons
- Calibration anchors (hedged)
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the hlr-topic-selection skill do?
Use when choosing or sharpening a topic for a Harvard Law Review (HLR) Article, Essay, or Book Review so it is timely, generalist-legible, and placeable in the student-edited law-review market. Judges fit and timing; it does not run the preemption search (that is hlr-preemption-check) or draft the claim.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill hlr-topic-selection --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.