Georgetown Law Journal

Georgetown Law Journal is a student-edited law review published at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., serving as a forum for scholarship on constitutional law, administrative law, international law, and regulatory policy. Founded in 1912, the Journal has published articles by leading jurists, scholars, and policymakers including Supreme Court Justices, cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, and prominent academics. Its location in Washington positions it at the intersection of federal courts, Congress, executive agencies, and international institutions.

History

The Journal was established during the Progressive Era alongside institutions such as Federal Trade Commission, National Recovery Administration, Woodrow Wilson's administration, and the expansion of federal administrative structures. Early contributors and readers included jurists from the Supreme Court of the United States, scholars affiliated with Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School, and practitioners from firms with ties to the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Throughout the New Deal, World War II, and the Cold War, the Journal published pieces addressing decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, debates in United States Congress, policy memos by advisors to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry S. Truman, and commentary on treaties such as the United Nations Charter. In the late 20th century the Journal featured work responding to rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States on civil rights cases, opinions from justices like William J. Brennan Jr. and Antonin Scalia, and scholarship influential in debates over statutes like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Organization and Editorial Process

The Journal operates under a structure similar to other flagship law reviews such as Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review, with an editorial board composed of law students who manage submission intake, cite checking, and publication decisions. Each year selection involves candidates from classes who have clerked for judges on courts including the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and state supreme courts like the Supreme Court of California. Faculty advisors who teach courses at Georgetown University Law Center and visiting scholars from institutions such as Oxford University, Cambridge University, and The Brookings Institution provide guidance. The Journal’s cite-checking and Bluebook conformity work engages standards familiar to litigators at firms with alumni in the United States Solicitor General's office, former clerks to justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and academics associated with centers like the Brennan Center for Justice.

Publications and Notable Articles

The Journal publishes symposia, essays, comments, and full-length articles by contributors including sitting and former Supreme Court of the United States Justices, cabinet officials from the Department of State and the Department of Justice, ambassadors to bodies like the United Nations, and scholars from Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, and NYU School of Law. Notable articles have engaged decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education, Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., Roe v. Wade, and later opinions addressing cases like District of Columbia v. Heller and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The Journal has hosted symposia on topics intersecting with treaties like the Treaty of Versailles historical analyses, regulatory frameworks embodied in the Administrative Procedure Act, and international adjudication in forums such as the International Court of Justice. Contributors have included scholars whose work intersects with awards like the Nobel Prize-winning economists, senior fellows from Brookings Institution, and practitioners who later served as judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Influence and Rankings

The Journal is routinely cited by federal courts including the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and district courts across the country, as well as referenced in legislative hearings before committees of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. Rankings produced alongside reviews such as Washington and Lee University School of Law's law journal rankings and assessments by legal publishers place it among the most cited and influential student-edited journals, comparable to Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, and Columbia Law Review. Its influence extends to administrative rulemaking at agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, where scholarship published in the Journal has informed regulatory commentary and amicus briefs filed in cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and courts of appeals.

Notable Alumni and Contributors

Alumni and contributors include jurists and public officials who have served on the Supreme Court of the United States, as judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and other circuits, cabinet members in administrations from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama, senators and representatives in the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives, ambassadors to the United Nations, solicitors general, and law professors at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, and Stanford Law School. Prominent names associated through authorship or editorship include individuals who later clerked for justices like John Marshall Harlan II and Thurgood Marshall, policymakers connected to the Office of Legal Counsel, and scholars who contributed to doctrinal debates over cases including Brown v. Board of Education and Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc..

Category:American law journals