The Yale Law Journal ( YLJ ) is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School .
43-570: Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School. The journal is one of the most cited legal publications in the United States (with an impact factor of 5.000) and usually generates the highest number of citations per published article. The journal, which is published eight times per year, contains articles, essays, features, and book reviews by professional legal scholars as well as student-written notes and comments. It
86-614: A 4 from all three faculty members) are admitted, upon which they are immediately notified by the school. There are also 50–80 outstanding students admitted each year without going through this review process. The LL.M. Program and the Visiting Researchers Program at Yale Law are amongst the smallest and most selective graduate law programs in the United States. Yale Law admits around 25 LL.M. students and around 10 visiting researchers every year. These programs are usually limited to those students who intend to pursue
129-472: A career in legal academia. At this distinctive law school, admission to the J.S.D. program is exclusive to candidates who have attained exceptional standing in obtaining their LL.M. degree at Yale Law School and exhibit the promise of delivering outstanding scholarly contributions. Yale Law admitted only men until 1918. Yale Law School houses over two dozen clinics that allow students to represent clients in real-world legal problems. Participation in clinics
172-526: A combination of their first-year grades and their competition scores. Twenty editors are selected based solely on their competition scores. The remaining twelve editors are selected on a discretionary basis. According to the law review's webpage, "Some of these discretionary slots may be used to implement the Review's affirmative action policy." The president of the Harvard Law Review is elected by
215-533: A competition. The only exception is YLS's flagship journal, the Yale Law Journal , which holds a two-part admissions competition each spring, consisting of a four- or five-hour " bluebooking exam," followed by a traditional writing competition. Although the Journal identifies a target maximum number of members to accept each year, it is not a firm number. Other leading student-edited publications include
258-470: A law school. He took on a former student, Samuel J. Hitchcock as a law partner, and Hitchcock became the proprietor of the New Haven Law School , joined by David Daggett in 1824. The Yale Law School shield (shown at the upper right of this page) shows staples and a rampant dog, representing Seth Staples and David Daggett. The school's affiliation with Yale began in the mid-1820s and in 1843,
301-450: A prohibition on secret recordings and disruption of campus events. The institution is known for its scholarly orientation; a relatively large number of its graduates (9%) choose careers in academia within five years of graduation, while a relatively low number (46%) choose to work in law firms five years after graduation. Another feature of Yale Law's culture since the 1930s, among both faculty and student graduates, has been an emphasis on
344-727: A simple Credit/No Credit system. For their remaining two-and-a-half years, students are graded on an Honors/Pass/Low Pass/Fail system. Similarly, the school does not rank its students. It is also notable for having only a single semester of required classes (plus two additional writing requirements), instead of the full year most U.S. schools require. Unusually, and as a result of unique Connecticut State court rules, Yale Law allows first-year students to represent clients through one of its numerous clinics; other law schools typically offer this opportunity only to second- and third-year students. Students publish nine law journals that, unlike those at most other schools, mostly accept student editors without
387-551: A summer school in law and economics, the Yale-Paris ;II-Essec Summer School . The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Yale Law School for the 2021–2022 academic year is $ 93,923. In 2015, the Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance (including cost of living) for three years is $ 289,879. According to Law School Data,
430-439: A writing competition held at the end of the first year except for twelve slots that are offered on a discretionary basis. The writing competition includes two components: an edit of an unpublished article and an analysis of a recent United States Supreme Court or Court of Appeals case. The writing competition submissions are graded blindly to assure anonymity. Fourteen editors (two from each 1L section) are selected based on
473-555: 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 journals in the category "Law". It also ranks first in other ranking systems of law reviews. It is published monthly from November through June, with the November issue dedicated to covering
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#1732783152896516-455: Is also consistently the highest of any law school in the United States. The school’s small size and prestige have made its admissions process the most selective of any law school in the United States. Each class in Yale Law's three-year J.D. program enrolls approximately 200 students. Yale's flagship law review is the Yale Law Journal , one of the most highly cited legal publications in
559-596: Is common among Yale Law students, with over 80% of degree candidates participating in clinical activities prior to graduation. Yale Law's clinics cover a wide range of issue areas and legal fields. Students represent clients before courts at all levels of the federal judiciary, state courts in Connecticut and other states, international tribunals and adjudicative bodies, administrative processes, and private arbitration. Yale Law School has greatly expanded its clinical programs in recent years, adding eight new clinics during
602-669: Is edited entirely by students. The journal has an online companion, the Yale Law Journal Forum , which features shorter pieces and responses from scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. The Yale Law Journal , in conjunction with the Harvard Law Review , the Columbia Law Review , and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review , publishes The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation ,
645-460: Is the law school of Yale University , a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut . Established in 1824, it has been ranked the number one law school in the country by U.S. News & World Report every year since the magazine started publishing law school rankings. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United States. Its yield rate of 87%
688-413: The Columbia Law Review , the University of Pennsylvania Law Review , and the Yale Law Journal — publishes The Bluebook , the primary guide for legal citation formats in the United States. The Harvard Law Review published its first issue on April 15, 1887, making it one of the oldest operating student-edited law reviews in the United States. The establishment of the journal was largely due to
731-631: The Yale Journal on Regulation , the Yale Law and Policy Review , and the Yale Journal of International Law . In November 2013, it was announced that a $ 25 million donation would bring student dormitory living back onto campus, with renovations to begin in 2018. Since 2020, Yale Law School has held the top spot as the world’s best law school, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) . Yale Law has been ranked
774-540: The Harvard Law Review stopped the publication of an article written by Rabea Eghbariah , a Palestinian student at Harvard Law. The online chairs of the Law Review had asked the Eghbariah to write an essay. The Intercept reported that the president of the Law Review , Apsara Iyer , with the support of a majority of the Law Review leadership, delayed the publication of the essay because of "safety concerns and
817-730: The New Deal . The law school's 15th dean, Harold Koh (2004–2009), made human rights a focus of the law school's work, building on a tradition that had developed over the previous two decades. On March 23, 2009, the White House announced the appointment of Koh to the United States Department of State as the Legal Adviser of the Department of State . Robert C. Post was selected to replace him as dean of
860-562: The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit . Professors Clark and Frank, among others, became judges on that court. Some of the faculty members who became Second Circuit judges continued to teach courses at YLS and chose their clerks from student graduates. These judges influenced thinking in general at YLS and particularly reinforced student interest in public service, a characteristic tradition at YLS since
903-1387: The United States courts of appeals ( Duane Benton , Stephanos Bibas , Guido Calabresi , Steven Colloton , Morton Ira Greenberg , Stephen A. Higginson , Andrew D. Hurwitz , Robert Katzmann , Scott Matheson , William J. Nardini , Michael H. Park , Jill A. Pryor , Richard G. Taranto , Patricia Wald , Cory T. Wilson ). Alumni have also served as United States Attorneys General ( Nicholas Katzenbach , Peter Keisler ) and United States Solicitors General ( Walter E. Dellinger III , Neal Katyal , Seth P. Waxman ). In addition, numerous editors have gone on to serve as high-ranking public officials (Senator Arlen Specter , Senator Michael Bennet , Senator Richard Blumenthal , former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich , Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar , FBI Director Christopher A. Wray , White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler , National Security Advisor John R. Bolton ). Former editors also include prominent law professors ( Matthew Adler , Akhil Amar , Ian Ayres , Barbara A. Babcock , Philip Bobbitt , Stephen L. Carter , Alan Dershowitz , John Hart Ely , Noah Feldman , Claire Finkelstein , Joseph Goldstein , Dawn Johnsen , Randall Kennedy , Karl Llewellyn , Jonathan R. Macey , Charles A. Reich , Reva Siegel , John Yoo , and Kenji Yoshino ), as well as
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#1732783152896946-655: The 2016–2017 academic year. Yale Law School signed in June 2011 an Agreement for Collaborative Activities to create an environment for long-term joint research, exchange and programming activities, with Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University , the direct inheritor of the Faculty of Law of Paris and acting law school of the Sorbonne University . They organize, together with the ESSEC Business School ,
989-468: The Class of 2013 accepted full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners. Yale Law School's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 8.4%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2013 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation. The median salary for
1032-605: The Philippines Jose P. Laurel , and Peter Mutharika , former president of Malawi ; U.S. senators, governors, and officials; and the current deans of four of the top fourteen-ranked law schools in the United States: Penn , Virginia , Northwestern , and Georgetown . The school began in the New Haven law office of Seth P. Staples in the 1800s, who began training lawyers. By 1810 he was operating
1075-611: The United States Barack Obama (1991); its first openly gay president was Mitchell Reich (2011); its first Latino president was Andrew M. Crespo , who is now tenured as a professor at Harvard Law School. The first female African-American president, ImeIme Umana , was elected in 2017. Gannett House, a white building constructed in the Greek Revival style that was popular in New England during
1118-727: The United States. According to Yale Law School's ABA -required disclosures, 83% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantage employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo practitioners. Yale Law alumni include many prominent figures in law and politics, including Presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton . Alumni also include current U.S. Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas , Samuel Alito , Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh , as well as multiple former justices, including Abe Fortas , Potter Stewart and Byron White ; several heads of state, including German President Karl Carstens , President of
1161-413: The average student who borrowed money to attend Yale Law School in the graduating class of 2022 graduated with $ 143,437 in debt. The annual total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, mandatory university health insurance, and living expenses) at Yale Law School for the 2021–2022 academic year is $ 93,821. According to Yale Law School's official 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 78.8% of
1204-790: The deans of Yale Law School ( Robert Post and Louis H. Pollak , who was also dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School ), Harvard Law School ( Martha Minow ), Columbia Law School ( David Schizer ), Brooklyn Law School ( Joan Wexler ), Northwestern University School of Law ( David E. Van Zandt ), Bates College ( Clayton Spencer ), Michigan Law School ( Evan Caminker ), New York University School of Law ( Richard Revesz ), Georgetown Law Center ( T. Alexander Aleinikoff ), Emory University School of Law ( Robert A. Schapiro ), Washington and Lee University School of Law ( Nora Demleitner ), and Stanford Law School ( Bayless Manning ). Harvard Law Review The Harvard Law Review
1247-459: The desire to deliberate with editors." The Law Review ultimately did not publish the article, and it was later published in The Nation . 25 Law Review editors criticized the decision not to publish the article, calling it an "unprecedented decision [that] threatens academic freedom and perpetuates the suppression of Palestinian voices." Yale Law School Yale Law School ( YLS )
1290-539: The first woman to serve as the journal's president was Susan Estrich (1977), who later was active in Democratic Party politics and became the youngest woman to receive tenure at Harvard Law School; its first non-white ethnic minority president was Raj Marphatia (1988, Volume 101), who is now a partner at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray ; its first African-American president was the 44th President of
1333-404: The importance of spending at least a few years in government service. A similar emphasis has long been placed on service as a judicial law clerk upon graduation. Its 4.5:1 student-to-faculty ratio is the lowest among U.S. law schools. Yale Law does not have a traditional grading system, a consequence of student unrest in the late 1960s. Instead, it grades first-semester first-year students on
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1376-455: The law school. In 2022, two federal appeals judges, James C. Ho and Elizabeth L. Branch , stopped hiring Yale Law graduates as clerks because of concerns the school suppresses conservative views. The school responded by initiating actions to "reaffirm its commitment to free speech", which included an orientation about "free expression" and "respectful engagement", the appointment of a new dean to help law students "resolve disagreements", and
1419-524: The mid-to-late 19th century, has been home to the Harvard Law Review since the 1920s. Before moving into Gannett House, the journal resided in the Law School's Austin Hall . Since the change of criteria in the 1970s, grades are no longer the primary basis of selection for editors. Membership in the Harvard Law Review is offered to select Harvard law students based on first-year grades and performance in
1462-410: The most competitive in the United States. In 2023, the median GPA for the entering class was 3.96, and the median LSAT score was 175. After an initial round of screening by the admissions department, approximately 25% of applications are independently evaluated by three different faculty members. Each application is scored from 2–4 at the discretion of the reader. All applicants with a perfect 12 (i.e.,
1505-617: The most widely followed authority for legal citation formats in the United States. The Michael Egger Prize is awarded on the recommendation of the Board of Officers of the Yale Law Journal for the best student Note or Comment on a current social problem. Alumni of The Yale Law Journal have served at all levels of the federal judiciary. Alumni include Supreme Court justices ( Samuel Alito , Abe Fortas , Brett Kavanaugh , Sonia Sotomayor , Potter Stewart ) and numerous judges on
1548-477: The number one law school in the United States by U.S. News & World Report between 1990 and 2024. Among U.S. law schools, Yale has the lowest acceptance rate and the highest yield rate—whereas less than 5% of applicants are admitted, about 80% of those who are accepted ultimately enroll, either in the Fall following their acceptance or after a deferral. Since its inception in 2018, with Yale Law School securing
1591-455: The other editors. It has been a long tradition since the first issue that the works of students published in the Harvard Law Review are called "notes" and they are unsigned as part of a policy reflecting "the fact that many members of the Review besides the author make a contribution to each published piece." In 2012, Harvard Law Review had 1,722 paid subscriptions. In November 2023,
1634-698: The previous year's term of the Supreme Court of the United States . The journal also publishes the online-only Harvard Law Review Forum , a rolling journal of scholarly responses to the main journal's content. The law review is one of three honors societies at the law school, along with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and the Board of Student Advisors . Students who are selected for more than one of these three organizations may only join one. The Harvard Law Review Association—in conjunction with
1677-481: The rankings discourage low-income applicants and "fail to advance the legal profession" by devaluing programs that encourage public interest profession rather than high-paying corporate jobs. Yale's decision was followed by Harvard Law School , which also withdrew from the rankings. Yale Law School enrolls about 200 new students a year, creating one of the smallest classes among top U.S. law schools. Its small class size and prestige combine to make its admissions process
1720-492: The school's students began receiving Yale degrees. Daggett went on to serve as mayor of New Haven, U.S. Senator, and judge on Connecticut's highest court. An opponent of education for African Americans and a supporter of colonization, he helped lead opposition to the establishment of a college for African Americans in New Haven and presided over the trial of a woman who ran a boarding school for African American girls. A special relationship or connection developed between YLS and
1763-446: The second-highest law school ( Harvard Law School ). Additionally, a 2010 survey of "scholarly impact," measured by per capita citations to faculty scholarship, found Yale's faculty to be the most cited law school faculty in the United States. In November 2022, Yale made a voluntary decision to pull out of the U.S. News & World Report Best Law Schools rankings. Describing their methodology as "profoundly flawed," Yale claimed that
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1806-490: The support of Louis Brandeis , then a recent Harvard Law School alumnus and Boston attorney who would later go on to become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. From the 1880s to the 1970s, editors were selected on the basis of their grades; the president of the Review was the student with the highest academic rank. The first female editor of the journal was Priscilla Holmes (1953–1955, Volumes 67–68);
1849-472: The top position, the Fortuna Ranking of US Law School Rankings has consistently placed Yale at #1, while Harvard and Stanford have maintained their positions as #2 and #3 respectively in the latest 2023-2024 ranking. The school also saw a greater percentage of its students go on to become Supreme Court clerks between the 2000 and 2010 terms than any other law school, more than double the percentage of
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