67 Am. U. L. Rev. F. i (2018).

*Editor-in-Chief, American University Law Review, Volume 67.

The American University Law Review published its inaugural print issue in 1952.  In that issue, R.V. Fletcher, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of American University, and David R. Bookstaver, Dean of the American University Washington College of Law, christened the nascent publication with the Foreword, stating that its publication “marks an important milestone in the continued and vigorous development of the Washington College of Law as an institution devoted to the education and training of lawyers.”¹R.V. Fletcher & David R. Bookstaver, Foreword, 1 Am. U. Intramural L. Rev. v, v (1952).  In keeping with those goals, Volume 67 is pleased to introduce the American University Law Review Forum, an online companion to the Law Review print publication.²The Forum is properly cited as “Am. U. L. Rev. F.” and is available at https://www.aulawreview.org/forum.

At the time of the Law Review’s inauguration, it was titled the “American University Intramural Law Review,” obtaining the name “Intramural ” because it only published the law school’s student works.  However, Chairman Fletcher and Dean Bookstaver predicted that the publication would progress and drop that label.³Fletcher & Bookstaver, supra note 1, at v. Five years later, the Law Review did just that:  in Volume 6, the Law Review published an Article by Professor John MacArthur Maguire of Harvard Law School,⁴John MacArthur Maguire, Witnesses—Suppression of Testimony by Reason of Death, 6 Am. U. L. Rev. 1 (1957). officially reaching adolescence by publishing a legal scholar and dropping “Intramural ” from its name.  Since Volume 6, the Law Review has continued to develop.  Volume 15, in 1965, expanded from its two-issue genesis to a three-issue publication.  Three years later, in Volume 18, the Law Review increased to four issues.  The Law Review maintained that publication format for twenty-six years.  In 1994, the Law Review’s next expansion occurred.  Volume 44, led by Editor-in-Chief Thomas C. Goldstein, moved the Law Review to its current six-issue format.

Today, with the launch of the Forum, the Law Review is proud to announce that it progresses again.  The Forum hosts short-form, timely discussion of the scholarship published in the Law Review’s print issues.  It enables the academic discourse within the Law Review’s print issues to continue after publication.  After Volume 67, the Forum will publish six issues annually, mirroring the print publication.  Like the print publication, the Forum will be available on HeinOnline, WestLaw, and LexisNexis, as well as through the Law Review’s website.

As Chairman Fletcher said in 1952 when the Law Review published its first issue, “[t]his issue marks a modest beginning.”⁵Fletcher & Bookstaver, supra note 1, at v.  With this modest beginning, the Volume 67 Editorial Board trusts that the Forum will flourish and continue the strong history of the Law Review as a premier venue for legal scholarship.