Harvard Law Review

Contents

Harvard Law Review is a student-run legal journal associated with Harvard Law School that publishes scholarship on constitutional law, civil procedure, corporate law, and a wide range of judicial and statutory topics. Established in the late 19th century, it has become one of the most cited and influential periodicals in American legal scholarship, intersecting with decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, scholarship at Yale Law School, and debates in publications such as the Columbia Law Review and the University of Chicago Law Review. The Review has shaped discourse involving figures and institutions including Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Felix Frankfurter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Earl Warren, and Robert H. Jackson.

History

The Review was founded amid legal institutional growth in the United States during the Progressive Era and the aftermath of the Civil War (United States), reflecting trends at peer outlets like the Yale Law Journal and the Michigan Law Review. Early influences included jurists and scholars such as Louis Brandeis, Roscoe Pound, Harold J. Laski, and administrators at Harvard University. Over decades the publication engaged with landmark developments including debates over the New Deal, opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States in cases like Brown v. Board of Education, and scholarly responses to statutes such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the National Labor Relations Act. During periods of national crisis—World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the September 11 attacks—the Review reflected shifting jurisprudential trends seen in writings by contemporaries at Columbia University and commentators influenced by H.L.A. Hart and Hans Kelsen.

The Review operates under the aegis of Harvard Law School with an editorial board drawn from the student body; selection historically involved performance in first-year courses and competitive citation-writing processes similar to those at Stanford Law School and Harvard Kennedy School competitions. Leadership roles have included editors-in-chief who later became prominent in institutions such as the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and federal agencies like the United States Department of Justice. Membership pathways have been debated alongside affirmative action and admissions discussions involving institutions such as the University of Michigan and cases like Grutter v. Bollinger and Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The Review’s governance mirrors collegiate structures seen at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and interacts with visiting scholars from centers like the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.

The Review publishes articles, essays, case comments, and book reviews addressing jurisprudential matters exemplified by opinions from the Supreme Court of the United States and statutes such as the Commerce Clause jurisprudence and the Fourth Amendment. Submissions come from academics at institutions including Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, New York University School of Law, and international scholars from universities like Oxford University and Cambridge University. Symposia topics have included administrative law debates influenced by figures like Cass Sunstein and Elinor Ostrom, transactional issues associated with Delaware corporate practice, and comparative law themes referencing the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Court of Justice. The Review’s editing process engages with citation standards similar to those codified in The Bluebook and interacts with manuscript practices from publishers such as Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

Citations of Review articles appear regularly in opinions authored by justices such as Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, and Sonia Sotomayor, and in scholarship at peer journals like the Georgetown Law Journal and the Virginia Law Review. The Review has been praised by commentators at outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and criticized in debates involving law school culture at institutions like Chicago and Berkeley. Its role in shaping legal education links it to movements in clinical legal education at Northeastern University School of Law and reforms discussed at the American Bar Association. Empirical studies by researchers at Harvard University and Princeton University have measured the Review’s impact on citation networks, judicial drafting, and the careers of contributors who later served in offices including the White House and the United States Senate.