Harvard Law Review Explained

Harvard Law Review
Discipline:	Law
Abbreviation:	Harv. Law Rev.
Bluebook:	Harv. L. Rev.
Publisher:	The Harvard Law Review Association
Country:	United States
Frequency:	8/year
History:	1887–present
Impact:	4.680
Impact-Year:	2018
Website:	https://harvardlawreview.org
Link1:	http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/
Link1-Name:	Online archive
Oclc:	46968396
Lccn:	12032979
Coden:	HALRAF
Issn:	0017-811X

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 Reviews 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 journals in the category "Law".^[1] It also ranks first in other ranking systems of law reviews.^{[2] [3]} It is published monthly from November through June, with the November issue dedicated to covering 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 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.

History

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.^[4] The establishment of the journal was largely due to 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);^[5] 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;^{[6] [7] [8]} its first African-American president was the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama (1991);^{[9] [10]} its first openly gay president was Mitchell Reich (2011);^[11] its first Latino president was Andrew M. Crespo, who is now tenured as a professor at Harvard Law School.^[12] The first female African-American president, ImeIme Umana, was elected in 2017.^[13]

Gannett House, a white building constructed in the Greek Revival style that was popular in New England during 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 a writing competition held at the end of the first year except for twelve slots that are offered on a discretionary basis.^{[14] [9] [15]} 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.^[14] The writing competition submissions are graded blindly to assure anonymity.^{[15] [16]} Fourteen editors (two from each 1L section) are selected based on 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."^[14] The president of the Harvard Law Review is elected by the other editors.^{[9] [17]}

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."^[18]

In 2012, Harvard Law Review had 1,722 paid subscriptions.^[19]

In November 2023, the Harvard Law Review stopped the publication of an article written by Rabea Eghbariah, a Palestinian student at Harvard Law.^{[20] [21]} 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 the desire to deliberate with editors." The Law Review ultimately did not publish the article, and it was later published in The Nation.^[22] 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."

Alumni

President of the United States

• Barack Obama, served as president of volume 104^[23]

Supreme Court Justices

• Stephen Breyer, served as articles editor of volume 77^[24]
• Felix Frankfurter^[25]
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg, served as editor for one year before transferring to Columbia Law School^[24]
• Ketanji Brown Jackson, served as supervising editor of volume 109.^[26]
• Elena Kagan, served as supervising editor of volume 99^[27]
• John G. Roberts Jr., served as managing editor for volume 92^[24]
• Antonin Scalia, served as notes editor for volume 73^[24]
• Edward Sanford

Other jurists

• David J. Barron, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, served as articles editor^[28]
• Andrew L. Brasher, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Michael Boudin, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, served as president of volume 77^[24]
• Henry Friendly, late judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, served as president^[29]
• Learned Hand, late judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, served as an editor but later resigned.
• Harris Hartz, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, served as case and developments editor^[30]
• Gregory G. Katsas, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, executive editor of volume 102.
• William Kayatta, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit^[31]
• Pierre Leval, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, served as notes editor^[32]
• Debra Ann Livingston, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit^[32]
• James Kenneth Logan, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Kevin C. Newsom, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, articles editor of volume 110.
• James L. Oakes, late judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Nina Pillard, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit^[33]
• Richard Posner, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, served as president of volume 75
• Lawrence VanDyke, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Cabinet secretaries

• Dean Acheson, Secretary of State^[34]
• Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security and former judge on United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit^[35]
• William Coleman Jr., Secretary of Transportation, Brown v. Board of Education attorney, and first African-American Supreme Court clerk^[36]
• Merrick Garland, 86th United States Attorney General; Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, served as articles editor^[37]
• Mike Pompeo, former US Secretary of State
• Elliot Richardson, Attorney General, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Commerce, served as president (1947)^[38]

Other U.S. government officials

• Paul Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General, served as Supreme Court editor^[39]
• Archibald Cox, late U.S. Solicitor General^[40]
• Christopher Cox, former chairman of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission^[41]
• Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator from Texas^[42]
• Viet Dinh, former Assistant Attorney General, served as Bluebook editor^[43]
• Charles Evans Hughes Jr., former U.S. Solicitor General^[44]
• Michael Froman, U.S. Trade Representative^[45]
• Julius Genachowski, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission^[46]
• Ian Gershengorn, former acting U.S. Solicitor General^[47]
• Danielle Gray, former Cabinet Secretary^[48]
• Erwin N. Griswold, a dean of the Harvard Law School and Solicitor General under presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon^[9]
• Alger Hiss, former U.S. State Department official and alleged spy^[49]
• Ron Klain, Chief of staff to Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden, Chief of Staff to the 46th president of the United States Joe Biden^[10]
• Christopher Landau, former United States Ambassador to Mexico, served as articles editor^[50]
• Michael Leiter, former Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center,^[51] president of volume 113^[52]
• Mark S. Martins, Brigadier General in the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, Chief Prosecutor of Military Commissions^[53]
• Bernard Nussbaum, former White House Counsel, served as notes editor^[54]
• F. Whitten Peters, former Secretary of the Air Force, served as president^[55]
• Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission^[56]
• Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Deputy Attorney General
• Jamie Raskin, U.S. Representative from Maryland
• Robert A. Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio^[57]
• Barry B. White, former United States Ambassador to Norway^[58]
• Robert L. Deitz, former General Counsel for the National Security Agency and Senior Counsel to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, served as notes editor and Supreme Court Note.^[59]

Other government officials

• Preeta D. Bansal, former New York State Solicitor General, served as supervising editor^[60]
• Allan Gotlieb, former Canadian Ambassador to the United States^[61]
• Eliot Spitzer, former Governor of New York^[62]
• Robert Stanfield, former Premier of the Province of Nova Scotia, and former leader of Canada's Official Opposition. He was the Review's first Canadian editor in the late 1930s.^[63]

Academics

• Stephen Barnett, legal scholar at University of California, Berkeley School of Law who opposed the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970^[64]
• Alexander Bickel, late professor at Yale Law School
• Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University^[65]
• Kingman Brewster, former president of Yale University, served as treasurer^[66]
• Amy Chua, professor at Yale Law School, served as executive editor^[67]
• Stephen J. Friedman, president of Pace University^[68]
• John H. Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America^[69]
• I. Glenn Cohen, professor at Harvard Law School.
• Annette Gordon-Reed, professor at Harvard Law School and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History^[70]
• Robert A. Gorman (born 1937), law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Charles Hamilton Houston, former Dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP Litigation Director^[71]
• Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, professor at Yale Law School
• John Honnold (1915–2011), law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Harold Koh, former Dean of Yale Law School^[72]
• David Leebron, president of Rice University, served as president^[73]
• Lance Liebman, former Dean of Columbia Law School, served as president^[74]
• Kenneth Mack, professor and historian at Harvard Law School.
• William C. Powers, former president of University of Texas, served as managing editor^[75]
• Stephen Schulhofer (born 1942), professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and NYU Law School
• John Sexton, former president of New York University^[76]
• James Vorenberg, former dean of Harvard Law School, served as president^[77]
• Michael K. Young, president of Texas A&M University^[78]

Other attorneys

• Bennett Boskey, law clerk to Judge Learned Hand and two U.S. Supreme Court justices^[79]
• Joe Flom, noted M&A attorney and name partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom^[80]
• John B. Quinn, founder and name partner of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan^[81]
• Kenneth Chesebro, participant in the January 6 United States Capitol attack^[82] indicted by the state of Georgia in the scheme to alter results of the 2020 election for US president, the Trump fake electors plot.^[83]
• Andrew Schafly, founder of Conservapedia

Writers and journalists

• Phil Graham, former publisher of The Washington Post^[84]
• Archibald MacLeish, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet^[85]
• Cliff Sloan, former publisher of Slate^[86]
• Jeffrey Toobin, print and broadcast journalist^[87]

Other alumni

• David Bonderman, co-founder of private equity firm TPG Capital^[88]
• Norman Dorsen, former American Civil Liberties Union president^[89]
• Jeff Kindler, former CEO of Pfizer^[90]
• Alfred Lee Loomis, financier, scientist, and inventor^[91]
• Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball, served as articles editor^[92]
• Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman and managing partner of Global Infrastructure Partners^[93]
• Harvey Schein, former president and chief executive of the Sony Corporation of America^[94]
• Nadine Strossen, former American Civil Liberties Union president^[95]

See also

• Harvard Law Record
• Hart–Fuller debate

Notes and References

1. Book: 2012 . Journals Ranked by Impact: Law . . . Science . .
2. Web site: July 15, 2024 . 2023 W&L Law Journal Rankings . July 22, 2024 . W&L Law.
3. Web site: Newell . Bryce Clayton . July 25, 2023 . Law Journal Meta-Ranking, 2023 Edition . July 22, 2024 . Bcnewell.com.
4. Book: Friedman, Lawrence M. . A History of American Law . 3rd . Simon & Schuster . New York . 2005 . 481 . 0684869888 .
5. "She Rose Above Obstacles With Ease" Priscilla Holmes '55: 1924–2010. Jill. Greenfield. Harvard Law Bulletin. 2011.
6. The Harvard Law Review — Glimpses of Its History as Seen by an Aficionado. Erwin N. Griswold. Harvard Law Review: Centennial Album I. 1987. 2012-05-02.
7. Web site: Women and Law Review: An Historical Overview. 9 October 2003. 2013-07-18.
8. Web site: Raj Marphatia: Biography. Ropes & Gray. 2012-05-02.
9. News: Fox . Butterfield . First Black Elected to Head Harvard's Law Review . February 6, 1990 . . 8 September 2017.
10. News: Jodi . Kantor . In Law School, Obama Found Political Voice . January 28, 2007 . The New York Times . 2008-01-04.
11. Web site: McKay. Caroline. Harvard Law Review Elects First Openly Gay President. The Harvard Crimson. 13 April 2011.
12. Web site: First Hispanic To Lead Harvard Law Review | News | The Harvard Crimson. www.thecrimson.com.
13. Web site: Harvard Law Review Elects First Black Female President . . 2017-02-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170216113735/http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/harvard-law-review-elects-first-black-female-president/ar-AAmZmVI . 2017-02-16 . dead .
14. Web site: Harvard Law Review Membership Selection Policies. Harvard Law Review. July 9, 2014.
15. Web site: Obama. Barack. Review President Explains Affirmative Action Policy (letter). 30 October 2008. The Harvard Law Record. August 3, 2012.
16. Web site: Prospective Transfer Students Applying for Membership. Harvard Law Review. July 9, 2014.
17. News: Seo. Jane. Tochilin '06 elected president of Harvard Law Review. The Harvard Crimson. February 7, 2012.
18. Web site: About the Harvard Law Review. harvardlawreview.org. en-US. 2018-04-23.
19. Web site:
    • The Nonsense Factory: The Making and Breaking of the American Legal System
    . 30 June 2019.
20. News: Harvard journal accused of censoring article alleging genocide in Gaza. theguardian.com. 22 November 2023 . Tait . Robert .
21. Web site: Lennard . Natasha . 2023-11-22 . Harvard Law Review Editors Vote to Kill Article About Genocide in Gaza . 2023-11-27 . The Intercept . en-US.
22. News: Eghbariah . Rabea . 2023-11-22 . The "Harvard Law Review" Refused to Run This Piece About Genocide in Gaza . en-US . 2023-11-27 . 0027-8378.
23. Ben Smith & Jeffrey Ressner, Obama Kept Law Review Balanced, CBSNews.com, June 23, 2008
24. Akhil Reed Amar, Heller, HLR, and Holistic Legal Reasoning, Harvard Law Review 122:145, (2008)
25. William M. Wiecek, The Birth of the Modern Constitution: The United States Supreme Court, 1941–1953 at 84 (2006)
26. http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/content/district-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
27. Elena Kagan, https://books.google.com/books?id=N6IxAAAAIAAJ&q=Elena+Kagan,+Supervising+Editor, Harvard Law Review 99 (1985)
28. Harvard Law School, Senate confirms David Barron for U.S. Court of Appeals
29. Michael Boudin, Judge Henry Friendly and the Mirror of Constitutional Law, New York University Law Review 82:975, 977 (2007)
30. Congressional Record, Congressional Record
31. Richard A. Serrano, et al.,"Roberts Was Ready at Every Turn", Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2005
32. United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Circuit Judges' Biographical Information
33. Web site: National Council of Jewish Women: Leading Change Since 1893. National Council of Jewish Women.
34. [James Chace]
35. Jennifer O'Shea, Ten Things You Didn't Know About Michael Chertoff, U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 27, 2007
36. Harvard Law School, William T. Coleman Shares Stories From His 60-Year Legal Career, Apr. 14, 2007
37. Nik DeCosta-Klipa, "Merrick Garland would give Harvard Law the majority on the Supreme Court", Boston.com, Mar. 16, 2017
38. Neil A. Lewis, Elliot Richardson Dies at 79; Stood Up to Nixon and Resigned in Saturday Night Massacre, The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2000
39. Office of the Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice, Solicitor General Paul D. Clement
40. Ken Gormley, Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation 29–30 (1999)
41. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Biography: Chairman Christopher Cox
42. Web site: Issues Archive – Harvard Law Today. today.law.harvard.edu.
43. Bancroft Associates PLLC, Viet D. Dinh
44. Office of the Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice, Solicitor General Charles Evans Hughes, Jr.
45. Web site: United States Trade Representative: Michael Froman.
46. Stephen Labaton, Obama to Select Genachowski to Lead F.C.C., The Caucus, The New York Times, January 13, 2009
47. Web site: Ian Gershengorn '93 named deputy assistant attorney general at USDOJ. Harvard Law Today.
48. The White House. White House Author: Danielle Gray
49. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,888531,00.html "The Judiciary: Your Witness, Mr. Murphy"
50. Web site: PN523 — Christopher Landau — Department of State. August 1, 2019. . August 5, 2019.
51. Web site: NCTC Home. www.dni.gov.
52. News Makers, http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/02.25/news.html, Harvard University Gazette, February 19, 1999
53. News: Pentagon names new Guantanamo prosecutor . . Peter . Finn . June 23, 2011.
54. Web site: Bernard W. Nussbaum. Download. vCard. WLRK.
55. Williams & Connolly. F. Whitten Peters, Partner
56. Edward Wyatt, "White House Elevates a Commissioner to Chairwoman of the F.T.C.", The New York Times, February 28, 2013
57. Harvard Law School, Letter to the editor: the review and the White House, in review
58. http://norway.usembassy.gov/ambassador2.html Ambassador Barry B. White
59. Web site: Robert L. Deitz Schar School of Policy and Government. 2020-09-07. schar.gmu.edu.
60. Skadden, Arps, Preeta D. Bansal
61. The Trilateral Commission, Allan E. Gotlieb
62. Daniel Gross, Eliot Spitzer: How New York's attorney general became the most powerful man on Wall Street, Slate, Oct. 21, 2004
63. News: Fraser . Graham . The best PM Canada never had . The Toronto Star . 2003-12-18 . A10 .
64. Grimes, William. "Stephen Barnett, a Leading Legal Scholar, Dies at 73", The New York Times, October 21, 2009. Accessed October 22, 2009.
65. Mark H. Odonoghae, It's Official: Derek Bok, Harvard Crimson, Jan. 11, 1971
66. Eric Pace, Kingman Brewster Jr., 69, Ex-Yale President and U.S. Envoy, Dies, The New York Times, Nov. 9, 1988
67. Web site: Faculty. Yale Law School. 18 November 2014.
68. Web site: Office of the President | Meet President Krislov | PACE UNIVERSITY. www.pace.edu.
69. Web site: Meet President Garvey. Catholic. University. The Catholic University of America. 2019-11-15. 2018-06-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20180626083429/http://president.cua.edu/history.cfm. dead.
70. Harvard Law School. Annette Gordon-Reed ’84 to join the Harvard faculty
71. Cornell Law School, Biography of Charles Hamilton Houston
72. Yale Law School, Faculty – Harold Hongju Koh
73. Terry Shepard, Meet David Lebron President-Elect of Rice University, Sallyport, Winter 2004
74. Columbia Law School, Lance Liebman
75. Office of the President, University of Texas, Biography: William Powers Jr.
76. Nina J. Easton & Kevin Cullen, To Many, He Is A Quiet Conservative, The Boston Globe, July 21, 2005
77. Harvard Law School, Professor James Vorenberg, Ninth Dean of HLS
78. Texas A&M, Michael K. Young Named Sole Finalist For President Of Texas A&M
79. Barnes, Bart (June 1, 2016). "Bennet Boskey, Washington lawyer, dies at 99", The Washington Post.
80. Harvard Law School, Joseph H. Flom '48 (1923–2011)
81. Web site: John B. Quinn | Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. www.quinnemanuel.com.
82. Web site: January 6 United States Capitol attack .,
83. News: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/16/kenneth-cheseboro-trump-indictment-fake-electors/ . .
84. George Washington University, Philip Graham (1915–1963)
85. Library of Congress, Previous Librarians of Congress – Archibald MacLeish
86. Web site: Speakers – World Affairs Council. www.worldaffairs.org.
87. CNN, CNN Programs – Anchors/Reporters – Jeffrey Toobin
88. Privcap, David Bonderman, Founder Partner – TPG Capital
89. Columbia College Today, "Alumni News: A Passion for Civil Liberties"
90. Web site: Jeff Kindler | Pfizer.
91. Web site: Alvarez . Luis . Alfred Lee Loomis: A Biographical Memoir. December 10, 2019. National Academy of Sciences.
92. MLB, Official Info: Rob Manfred
93. Ventures Africa, The Man Who Bought Gatwick Airport
94. New York Times, Harvey Schein, Promoter of Betamax at Sony, Dies at 80
95. New York law School, Nadine Strossen