In the context of law school, a law review is an entirely student-run journal that publishes articles written by law professors, judges, and other legal professionals; many law reviews also publish shorter pieces written by law students called “notes” or “comments.”Most law schools have a “main” law review that features articles from a wide variety of legal subjects and often has “Law Review” in the title, for example, Harvard Law Review; this is the “Law Review” addressed in this article. In addition to Law Review, most schools also have several other law journals that each focus on one particular area of the law, such as the Stanford Environmental Law Journal or the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy.Generally, students join Law Review in their second year of law school, although some schools also permit third-year students to try out for Law Review as well. Each school’s process for selecting Law Review staff differs, but many have a write-on competition at the close of first-year exams during which students are given a packet of material and are asked to write a sample note or comment within a specified time frame. An editing exercise is often required, as well.
Some law reviews offer invitations to participate based solely on first-year grades, while other schools use a combination of grades and write-on competition results to select members. Those who accept invitations become law review staff members.Law review staff members are responsible for cite checking making sure that statements are supported with authority in footnotes and also that the footnotes are in the correct Bluebook form. Editors for the following year are selected by the current year’s editorial staff, usually through an application and interview process.Editors oversee the running of the law review, from selecting the articles to assigning work to staff members; there is often no faculty involvement at all.