Journal of Legal Studies

Journal of Legal Studies
Title	Journal of Legal Studies
Discipline	Law, Economics, Political Science
Language	English
Publisher	University of Chicago Press
Country	United States
History	1972–present
Frequency	Quarterly

Contents

Journal of Legal Studies The Journal of Legal Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes interdisciplinary research at the intersection of Law and economics, Public choice theory, Political economy, and Philosophy of law. Founded in 1972 and published by the University of Chicago Press, the journal has featured work by scholars associated with institutions such as the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

History

The journal was established in 1972 during a period when figures from the Chicago School (economics), including scholars associated with the John M. Olin Foundation and the Becker–Stigler collaboration, were reshaping scholarly conversations about Antitrust law, Constitutional Law, and Regulatory economics. Early editorial leadership included faculty connected to the University of Chicago Law School, the Law and Society Association, and visiting scholars from Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Over its decades-long run the journal has reflected shifts influenced by events such as the Oil crisis (1973)],] the Reagan Revolution, the End of the Cold War, and debates following the Financial crisis of 2007–2008.

The journal covers empirical and theoretical work on topics including Antitrust law, Tort law, Contract law, Property law, Administrative law, and Criminal law. It commonly publishes research informed by methods from Econometrics, Game theory, Behavioral economics, and Institutional economics, and engages with debates involving scholars from Harvard Law School, Columbia Business School, London School of Economics, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and Yale Law School. Frequent subject matter intersects with case studies involving the Supreme Court of the United States, landmark statutes like the Sherman Antitrust Act, regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, and international regimes exemplified by the World Trade Organization and the European Court of Human Rights.

The editorial board has historically drawn editors from leading departments and centers, including the Law and Economics Center, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Hoover Institution, and the Brookings Institution. Peer review follows double-blind practices similar to procedures at journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Econometrica. Manuscript submissions undergo evaluation for methodological rigor comparable to standards in articles from authors affiliated with Stanford University, Duke University, Cornell University, University of Michigan, and Northwestern University. Special issues have been guest-edited by scholars from the Russell Sage Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The journal is widely cited in scholarship across Legal realism, Public choice, and Behavioral law and economics, with influence noted in the work of scholars linked to Richard Posner, Ronald Coase, Gary Becker, Oliver Williamson, and Cass Sunstein. Courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States and various federal appellate panels, have referenced research published in the journal in opinions concerning Antitrust, Regulatory takings, and Evidence law. The journal appears in citation indices alongside titles such as Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and The Journal of Law and Economics and is discussed in forums hosted by organizations like the American Law Institute, the Association of American Law Schools, and the International Bar Association.

Notable contributions include empirical studies on Tort reform and liability patterns, theoretical pieces on Contract theory and bargaining drawing on the work of John Nash and Lloyd Shapley, and applied analyses of market structure referencing cases like United States v. Microsoft Corp. and United States v. AT&T. Influential articles have intersected with debates around the Roe v. Wade era jurisprudence, regulatory responses to the Enron scandal, and scholarship informing policy measures adopted by the Federal Communications Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contributors have included scholars from the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, New York University, University of California, Berkeley, and the London School of Economics.

The journal is distributed by the University of Chicago Press and is indexed in major services such as Web of Science, Scopus, JSTOR, HeinOnline, and the Social Sciences Citation Index. Institutional subscriptions are common among libraries at the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Bodleian Libraries, the Harvard Law School Library, and the Yale Law Library. Digital archiving and access policies align with platforms used by Project MUSE and university repositories operated by institutions like Princeton University and Stanford University.

Category:Academic journals Category:Law journals Category:University of Chicago Press publications