Mission

For over a century, the Yale Law Journal has been at the forefront of legal scholarship, sparking conversation and encouraging reflection among scholars and students, as well as practicing lawyers and sitting judges and Justices.

The Journal strives to shape discussion of the most important and relevant legal issues through a rigorous scholarship selection and editing process.

Composition and admission

The Journal is led by nine editors who sit on the Officer Board and is guided by a Board of Directors composed of alumni, faculty, and YLS representatives. 

The Journal selects editors after the spring of their first year at YLS. The admissions process includes an assessment of source and citation skills, as well as an analysis of legal scholarship. Applicants are also asked to submit a personal statement. Application materials are anonymized throughout our admissions process. 

For transfer students, the Journal provides a parallel admissions process. Information about the transfer-student admission process for Volume 135 will be forthcoming in Spring 2025.

Students may also be offered admission if they write a Note that is accepted for publication in the Journal. 

If you have any questions about our admissions processes, please contact the Executive Development Editor.

Editing Process

The Yale Law Journal’s editing process is extremely intensive. YLJ editors suggest global changes to the piece’s structure and substance, line-edit the piece, ensure that every claim in the piece is fully and accurately supported, and conduct a thorough proofread.  

History

In 1891, seven students at Yale Law School established the Yale Law Journal. At the time, it was only the third student-administered law review in operation, publishing six times a year at an annual subscription price of $2.00. Today, it is one of the oldest and most widely cited law reviews in the nation. Since the Journal’s founding, more than 130 Boards of Editors have continued the Journal’s original mission of disseminating legal scholarship to the world. The Journal now resides on the fourth-floor wing of the Sterling Law Building. 

Major Articles

Fred R. Shapiro’s The Most-Cited Articles from The Yale Law Journal (100 Yale L.J. 1449 (1991)), an overview of major articles published by the Yale Law Journal over the years, can be found here. Over the years, the Journal has published groundbreaking scholarship by both established authors and emerging voices in legal academia and practice. 

The Bluebook

The Bluebook is the definitive style guide for legal citation in the United States. The Yale Law Journal is one of the four law reviews responsible for editing and publishing The Bluebook, with assistance from the Law Library of Congress. The Twenty-First Edition was released in 2020.

The Journal Online

In 2005, the Journal became the first leading law review to publish an online companion. In 2014, we relaunched our online component as the YLJ Forum: a hub for short-form, timely discussion of ideas about the law and legal scholarship, with a sharper focus on brevity, speed, and relevance to current developments. As has been the case throughout the existence of the Journal’s online companion, the YLJ Forum offers authors the opportunity to publish substantive works that are available in HeinOnline, LexisNexis, and Westlaw, as well as on the Journal’s website.  

Production

The Yale Law Journal is published eight times a year (monthly from October through June, with the exception of December) by The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc. The Journal is printed by Sheridan. Periodicals postage paid at New Haven, Connecticut, and additional mailing offices. Publication number ISSN 0044-0094. Archived PDFs since Volume 110 can be found here; earlier volumes can be found on EBSCO, HeinOnline, JSTOR, Lexis, and Westlaw.

Citations in the Journal conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (21st ed. 2020), copyright by the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. The Bluebook is available in its entirety online at http://www.legalbluebook.com.

Copyright

Copyright © 2022 by The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc. Requests for copyright permissions should be directed to Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, http://www.copyright.com.