The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Announcing A Tri-Journal Note Exchange Between the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Texas Review of Law & Politics
I commend the journals for this forward-thinking move, and encourage other law schools to establish journals for conservative, libertarian, textualist, originalist, and classical liberal scholarship.
Throughout my career, I have been proud to associate with three journals that promote conservative, libertarian, textualist, originalist, and classical liberal scholarship: the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty (on whose Board I sit), the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Texas Review of Law & Politics. These outlets provide critical outlets for right-of-center authors. I've approached each of these journals to publish works that would not find a home in most progressive mainstream law journals. As law reviews continue to pursue inclusive policies, they will inevitably exclude conservative legal thought. Moreover, conservative law students will find it more difficult to join law journals, get their notes published, and become editors. Look no further than the Georgetown Law Journal.
The editors of the NYU JLL, the Georgetown JLPP, and TROLP have recognized this creeping problem. And they have adopted an important, forward-looking solution: a Tri-Journal Notes Exchange.
Earlier today, we, as Editors-in-Chief of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Texas Review of Law & Politics, formally announced the launch of a Tri-Journal Notes Exchange to our Members. As Editors-in-Chief of three of the country's student-edited law journals committed to publishing conservative, libertarian, textualist, originalist, and classical liberal scholarship, we believe this project is vitally important to not only our respective publications, but to the legal community at large.
The establishment of the Exchange is part of our cross-journal commitment to promoting a cross- campus culture of collaboration, marked by an emphasis on intellectual cross-pollination and the advancement of student scholarship. At this time, the Notes Exchange is only open to current student editors at the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Texas Review of Law & Politics.
For now, the policy is only open to student editors at the three journals. But the editors extend an invitation to other schools to participate:
Our long-term ambition is to open this Notes Exchange up to current law students at all other law schools and dramatically expand our capacity to publish student scholarship. To this end, we look forward to welcoming journals that share our vision for advancing conservative, libertarian, textualist, originalist, classical liberal, and heterodox scholarship to the Exchange in the future. We strongly encourage motivated students and faculty members at institutions around the country to follow on the path the founders of our journals set out on decades ago and work to establish editorially and culturally independent publications on your own campuses.
I hope other schools can participate in this consortium. The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, the flagship Federalist Society Journal, should join this movement. And other law schools with a critical mass of conservative students should establish new journals. The most likely candidates are Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, Penn, Virginia, Michigan, Northwestern, and Duke.
In the future, flagship law journals will become inhospitable to scholarship that challenges progressive orthodoxies. Savvy action today can build the institutions that maintain homes for conservative legal thought well into the future. Interested students should reach out to me with any questions. I am happy to help facilitate discussions.
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