What Are Law Review and Law Journals About

Law school is a maker of myths and many of these myths center around the student-run institution of law review. You may have heard that only the top students make law review, or that once you make law review the rest of your career is an easy ride to fame, glory, and riches. You may have also heard law review is a living hell, a slave galley of neurotic and overworked law students being whipped by a crew of manic and frenzied editors into turning out reams of pedantic and verbose gibberish. You may have been told that law review is the only way to make it in the legal profession, or that it is the one aspect of law school to avoid at all costs in order to maintain your sanity.

Before discussing law review (or law journal, as it is called at some schools) further, we will try to debunk some of the myths surrounding it and state generally what it is and is not. Most good law schools, and all law schools that are truly well thought of, have law reviews.


Law review is an institution composed of and run completely by students, perhaps with some guidance from the faculty and financial support from the administration. It is dedicated to publishing scholarly articles on the law by law students, law professors, and other members of the legal profession. It usually publishes soft cover volumes several times a year; each year these are bound into a large hardcover volume, sequentially numbered, and placed into a set of volumes previously produced by the particular school's law review. The number of schools producing law reviews and the volume of periodicals produced by these schools are so great that an entire floor of a good-sized law school library can be taken up by law review periodicals alone. Some schools' law reviews (such as Harvard's) date from the 1800s; others are of more recent vintage.

Aside from enhancing the school's reputation, what can a law review do for students? Since we are now speaking of individuals rather than law schools, the answer is that it can do nothing for them unless they participate.

Our personal feeling is that the writing experience gained by anyone who sticks with law review is worth the long hours and unpleasant menial tasks encountered along the way. Reasonable minds could differ, however, and for that reason it is desirable, if you have any doubts, to gather all the information you can about your school's law review before deciding to join.

Alternative Journals

Membership in a law journal other than the main law review or journal published by your law school can also provide you with valuable writing and editing experience. The structure of the editorial hierarchy and the work involved in turning out a published legal periodical is generally the same in other journals as in law review. There are advantages and disadvantages to obtaining that experience with an alternative journal instead of as a member of law review.

Membership in an alternative journal does not carry with it the prestige of law review membership. It carries less weight with prospective employers and usually has less resume value. Because the competition for membership in alternative journals is lesser or nonexistent, it represents less of an achievement than law review membership. Additionally, if you move into an editorial position, the minions doing your bidding will be fewer in number and generally less driven and dedicated. Thus, advancing into editorial positions in an alternative journal will not necessarily relieve you of lower-level tasks.

On the other hand, the fact that competition for membership is slight to nonexistent also makes for a more relaxed, less stressful atmosphere. The members of an alternative journal are voluntarily bound together by a common interest in the specialized subject matter of that journal instead of being driven together by their need to achieve some-thing. In comparison to traditional law reviews, there is substantially less competition for editor positions, which are often filled by those willing to dedicate the time necessary to keep the alternative journal alive. These factors tend to minimize the backbiting, politicking, and one-upmanship that can sometimes make law review unpleasant.

In addition, because the subject matter of an alternative journal is usually specialized, you have the opportunity to meet and work with outstanding scholars and practitioners in that area. Moreover, because the articles address an area of the law you already have an interest in, you can gain valuable substantive knowledge while preparing an article for publication. As with law review, though, the preparation of alternative journal articles for publication necessarily includes the drudgery of cite-checking.

A further advantage of membership in an alternative journal i$ that you are more likely to have your own comment Of note published (if you are willing to make the substantial commitment of time and energy necessary to research, write, rewrite, revise, proofread, argue with student editors, and finalize such a work). There is simply less competition for the space in the journal. In fact, some alternative journals are chronically short of material to publish.

In sum, the experience that can be gained from joining an alternative journal is valuable and potentially rewarding, but, like law review, it demands a substantial commitment of time and energy. Membership in a journal specializing in an area of law that holds particular interest for you can be especially worthwhile, not only in developing your legal writing skills and your knowledge of a substantive area of law, but also in making contacts with leading practitioners and scholars in the field.