The ''Columbia Law Review'' is a

law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also p ...

edited and published by students at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

. The journal publishes scholarly articles,

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

s, and student notes. It was established in 1901 by Joseph E. Corrigan and

John M. Woolsey John Munro Woolsey (January 3, 1877 – May 4, 1945) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was known "for his brilliant and poignantly phrased decisions", including seve ...

, who served as the review's first

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

and secretary. The ''Columbia Law Review'' is one of four law reviews that publishes the ''

Bluebook ''The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation'' is a style guide that prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. It is taught and used at a majority of U.S. law schools and is also used in a majority of federal ...

''.

History

The ''Columbia Law Review'' represents the school's third attempt at a student-run law periodical. In 1885, the ''Columbia Jurist'' was founded by a group of six students but ceased publication in 1887. Despite its short run, the ''Jurist'' is credited with partially inspiring the creation of the

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...

, which began publication a short time later. The second journal, the ''Columbia Law Times'' was founded in 1887 and closed down in 1893 due to lack of revenue. Publication of the current ''Columbia Law Review'' began in 1901, making it the fifth oldest surviving law review in the US. Dean William Keener took an active involvement during its founding to help ensure its longevity.

Impact

The ''Columbia Law Review'' was the top-cited law journal during the 2018

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

term. According to the ''

Journal Citation Reports ''Journal Citation Reports'' (''JCR'') is an annual publicationby Clarivate Analytics (previously the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters). It has been integrated with the Web of Science and is accessed from the Web of Science-Core Colle ...

'' the ''Columbia Law Review'' had a 2009

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as ...

of 3.610, ranking it third out of 116 journals in the category "Law". In 2007 the ''Columbia Law Review'' ranked second for submissions and citations within the legal academic community, after ''Harvard Law Review''.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of the ''Columbia Law Review'' include: *U.S. Supreme Court Justices ** William O. Douglas **

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by Presiden ...

*U.S. Courts of Appeals Judges ** Wilfred Feinberg ** Harold Leventhal ** Paul R. Hays **

Harold Medina Harold Raymond Medina (February 16, 1888 – March 14, 1990) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court fo ...

** Jerre Stockton Williams ** James Alger Fee ** Daniel M. Friedman **

Joseph Frank Bianco Joseph Frank Bianco (born September 11, 1966) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was formerly a United States district judge of the United ...

Barbara Lagoa Barbara Lagoa (born November 2, 1967) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Prior to becoming a federal judge, she was the first Latina and Cub ...

*U.S. District Courts Judges ** Jack Weinstein **

Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum (September 16, 1929 – February 5, 2016) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education Born into a Jewish family, Cedarbaum grew up in the C ...

Denise Cote Denise Louise Cote (born October 13, 1946) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Early life and education Cote was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She received a Bach ...

Alvin Hellerstein Alvin Kenneth Hellerstein (born December 28, 1933) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and has presided over several high-profile cases. Education and career Helle ...

William Bernard Herlands William Bernard Herlands (July 19, 1905 – August 28, 1969) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education and career Born in New York City, New York, Herlands receive ...

** John S. Martin Jr. **

Edmund Louis Palmieri Edmund Louis Palmieri (May 14, 1907 – June 15, 1989) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education and career Born in New York City, New York, Palmieri received an Ar ...

Alexander Holtzoff Alexander Holtzoff (November 7, 1886 – September 6, 1969) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Education and career Born in New York City, Holtzoff received an Artium Baccalaur ...

** Dickinson Richards Debevoise ** Richard Franklin Boulware II ** James Edward Doyle *U.S. Solicitors General ** Charles Fried ** Donald Verrilli Jr. *Chairwoman of the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

Mary Jo White *Director of the CIA William Colby *U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York

Preet Bharara Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer, author, podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is curren ...

*Chairman of the

Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses the State of New York, the 12 northern counties of Ne ...

and Director of the National Economic Council Stephen Friedman (PFIAB) *Columbia University president Lee C. Bollinger *Columbia Law School deans **Young B. Smith ** Michael I. Sovern ** Barbara Aronstein Black * Columbia Law School professors **

Herbert Wechsler Herbert Wechsler (December 4, 1913 – April 26, 2004) was an American legal scholar and former director of the American Law Institute (ALI). He is most widely known for his constitutional law scholarship and for the creation of the Model Penal ...

**Oscar Schachter **Walter Gellhorn **

Harvey Goldschmid Harvey Jerome Goldschmid (May 6, 1940 – February 12, 2015) was the Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. From 2002 to 2005, he served as a member of the Securities & Exchange Commission, where, though a Democrat, often sided with ch ...

** R. Kent Greenawalt **

Gillian E. Metzger Gillian E. Metzger (born October 2, 1965) is a United States constitutional law scholar and a professor of law at Columbia Law School. Early life and education The daughter of Columbia University history professor Walter P. Metzger, Gillian ...

** E. Allan Farnsworth *University of Pennsylvania Law School professors ** Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. **

Howard Lesnick Howard Lesnick (April 22, 1931 – April 19, 2020) was the Jefferson B. Fordham Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Biography Lesnick was born into a Jewish family in New York City to George L. and Sadie (R ...

(Editor-in-Chief) **

Amy Wax Amy Laura Wax (born January 19, 1953) is an American lawyer, neurologist, and academic. She is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her work addresses issues in social welfare law and policy, as w ...

*Yale Law School professors **

Felix S. Cohen Felix Solomon Cohen (July 3, 1907 – October 19, 1953) was an American lawyer and scholar who made a lasting mark on legal philosophy and fundamentally shaped federal Indian law and policy. Biography Felix S. Cohen was born in Manhattan, New Y ...

** Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. * Duke University School of Law professor George C. Christie *Michigan Law School professor

Mark D. West Mark D. West (born July 26, 1968) is an American legal scholar, social scientist, and academic leader serving as the Nippon Life Professor of Law at the University of Michigan since 2003"Mark D. West, University of Michigan Law School" michigan.la ...

*New York University Law School professor

Samuel Estreicher Samuel Estreicher (born 1948) is Dwight D. Opperman Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, director of its Center for Labor and Employment and co-director of its Institute of Judicial Administration. He has published dozens of arti ...

*Berkeley professor and criminal law scholar

Sanford Kadish Sanford "Sandy" H. Kadish (Sept. 7, 1921Andrew Cohen, ''Berkeley Law News'', Sept. 5, 2014. - Sept. 5, 2014) was an American criminal law scholar and theorist. He specialised in criminology and criminal law theory, and was one of the drafters of ...

*New York Governor

George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...

*Virginia Lt. Gov.

Justin Fairfax Justin Edward Fairfax (born February 17, 1979) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 41st lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the second African-American elected statewide in ...

*Two-time SEC General Counsel David M. Becker *NBA Commissioner David Stern *New York Supreme Court Justice

Aron Steuer Aron Seth Walter Steuer (October 22, 1898 – December 7, 1985) was a Jewish-American lawyer and judge from New York. Life Steuer was born on October 22, 1898, in New York City, New York, the son of lawyer Max D. Steuer and Bertha Popkin. In Ma ...

*Prominent attorneys ** George Davidson ** Arthur Garfield Hays ** Gary P. Naftalis ** Charles Rembar ** Louis S. Weiss *Authors ** Brad Meltzer

Past Editors-in-Chief

Notable articles

* * * * *

References

External links

* {{Authority control American law journals Columbia University academic journals Publications established in 1901 General law journals English-language journals Law journals edited by students 8 times per year journals