Yale Law Journal

Publications & Journals - Yale Law School

src: law.yale.edu

The Yale Law Journal is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School. The journal is one of the most cited legal publications in the nation and usually generates the highest number of citations per published article.

The journal, which is published eight times per year, contains articles, essays, features, and book reviews by professional legal scholars as well as student-written notes and comments. It is edited entirely by students. The journal has an online companion, the Yale Law Journal Online, which features op-ed length pieces and responses from scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. Prior to 2009, the Yale Law Journal Online was known as The Pocket Part.

The Yale Law Journal, in conjunction with the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, publishes the Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, the most widely followed authority for legal citation formats in the United States.

Video Yale Law Journal

Notable alumni

Past editors of the Yale Law Journal include prominent law professors (Akhil Amar, Ian Ayres, Stephen L. Carter, Alan Dershowitz, John Hart Ely, Joseph Goldstein, Dawn Johnsen, Randall Kennedy, Kris Kobach, Charles A. Reich, John Yoo, and Kenji Yoshino), the deans of Yale Law School (Robert Post), Harvard Law School (Martha Minow), Columbia Law School (David Schizer), Northwestern University School of Law (David E. Van Zandt, now the president of The New School), Bates College (Clayton Spencer) Michigan Law School (Evan Caminker), New York University School of Law (Richard Revesz), Georgetown Law Center (T. Alexander Aleinikoff), Emory University School of Law (Robert A. Schapiro), Washington and Lee University School of Law (Nora Demleitner), Stanford Law School (Bayless Manning) political figures (journalists Michael Barone and Jeff Greenfield, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Senator Arlen Specter, Senator Michael Bennet, Senator Richard Blumenthal), Supreme Court justices (Abe Fortas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor), and other judges (Guido Calabresi, Steven M. Colloton, Robert Katzmann, Brett Kavanaugh, Scott Matheson, Sidney Stein).

Maps Yale Law Journal

Admissions

The journal holds a two-part admissions competition each spring, consisting of a "source and citation exam" followed by a traditional writing competition. Students may also join the staff if they publish a note in the Journal.

Notable articles

Some of journal's most cited articles include:

Hohfeld, Wesley N. (1913). "Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning". Yale Law Journal. 23 (1): 16-59. doi:10.2307/785533.
Llewellyn, Karl N. (1931). "What Price Contract? -- An Essay in Perspective". Yale Law Journal. 40 (5): 704-751. doi:10.2307/790659.
Douglas, William O.; Bates, George E. (1933). "The Federal Securities Act of 1933". Yale Law Journal. 43 (2): 171-217. doi:10.2307/791346.
Lasswell, Harold D.; McDougal, Myres S. (1943). "Legal Education and Public Policy: Professional Training in the Public Interest". Yale Law Journal. 52 (2): 203-295. doi:10.2307/792244.
Prosser, William L. (1960). "The Assault upon the Citadel (Strict Liability to the Consumer)". Yale Law Journal. 69 (7): 1099-1148. doi:10.2307/794385.
Calabresi, Guido (1961). "Some Thoughts on Risk Distribution and the Law of Torts". Yale Law Journal. 70 (1): 499-553. doi:10.2307/794261.
Reich, Charles A. (1964). "The New Property". Yale Law Journal. 73 (5): 733-787. doi:10.2307/794645.
Ely, John Hart (1973). "The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade". Yale Law Journal. 82 (5): 920-949. doi:10.2307/795536.
Easterbrook, Frank H.; Fischel, Daniel R. (1982). "Corporate Control Transactions". Yale Law Journal. 91 (4): 698-737. doi:10.2307/796036.
Ackerman, Bruce A. (1984). "The Storrs Lectures: Discovering the Constitution". Yale Law Journal. 93 (6): 1013-1072. doi:10.2307/796204.
Fiss, Owen (1984). "Against Settlement." Yale Law Journal. 93 (6): 1073-1090. doi:10.2307/796205.

Both Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor wrote student notes for the Yale Law Journal, which were scrutinized during their nomination processes to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Alito, Jr., Samuel A. (1974). "The Released Time Cases Revisited: A Study of Group Decisionmaking by the Supreme Court". Yale Law Journal. 83 (6): 1202. doi:10.2307/795480.
Sotomayor, Sonia (1979). "Statehood and the Equal Footing Doctrine: The Case for Puerto Rican Seabed Rights". Yale Law Journal. 88 (4): 825. doi:10.2307/795781.