Fordham Law Review


The Fordham Law Review is a student-run law journal associated with the Fordham University School of Law that covers a wide range of legal scholarship.

Overview

In 2017, the Fordham Law Review was the seventh-most cited law journal by other journals, and the fifth-most cited by courts. The journal's content consists generally of academic articles, symposia, and student-written notes.

History

The Fordham Law Review was established in 1914 at the Fordham University School of Law. However, it suspended publication after only three years, following the United States' entry into World War I. The final issue before suspension provided a brief explanatory statement:

Owing to the war, the Review will close this year with this number. Some of the Board of Editors are in military service, with national and state organizations. Others are at the training camps for reserve officers.

The journal did not restart publication until 1935 amidst the Great Depression. Soon thereafter it garnered attention for its publication of Fordham Law School Dean Ignatius M. Wilkinson’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee condemning Franklin D. Roosevelt Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937. Wilkinson’s testimony, published in the May 1937 edition of the journal, warned Congress that the President's plan "reaches down to and shakes the foundations of our constitutional structure."
In 2011, the journal launched the Fordham Law Review Online. The Fordham Law Review Online provides a forum for responses to articles published in the regular journal and to comment on contemporary legal issues. Articles published in the Fordham Law Review Online are available on the journal's website and on Digital Commons.

Membership

The journal is managed by a board of up to 20 student editors. It selects approximately 65 staff members each year to assist with production. Membership on the Fordham Law Review is open to all first-year Fordham law students and transfer students. The journal offers positions to approximately 20 students on the basis of first-year grades and 45 students on the basis of their submissions to a writing competition and personal statements.

Notable alumni