The American University Law Review is placing a call for submissions of original legal articles and scholarly commentaries for its forthcoming Annual Symposium issue, this year dedicated to a review and response to the 2021 through 2022 Supreme Court term and the upcoming term. Specifically, the Law Review seeks submissions analyzing the rapidly evolving response to the Supreme Court’s decisions in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Carson v. Makin, Shurtleff v. City of Boston, and pending cases before the Supreme Court in the next term on affirmative action, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and free speech. Approximately four to six submissions will be selected, with a publication date slated for the spring of 2023.

The American University Law Review is ranked among the top fifty law journals in the country and is proud to host an annual symposium focusing on timely, emerging issues in the law. This issue accompanies the Law Review’s Annual Symposium. This year, the Law Review’s Annual Symposium will take place in the first week of February 2023. The symposium will feature panels on reproductive justice post-Dobbs, First Amendment jurisprudence, legal action post-Bruen, and a forward-look to the 2022 through 2023 Supreme Court term, convening judges, scholars, and practitioners to discuss cutting-edge legal topics with vigorous audience engagement. Selected authors will have the opportunity to present their work as a panelist at this year’s symposium series; however, participation is not a requirement for consideration.

How to Submit

Please submit manuscripts to the Law Review through Scholastica by January 3, 2023. Authors should include a brief abstract and a curriculum vitae (cv) with their manuscript. For more information about Scholastica submissions, see the “Submissions” page.

Submission Guidelines

Length: The Law Review values succinct arguments. We strongly prefer manuscripts less than 25,000 words in length, including footnotes. Manuscripts that exceed 30,000 words will be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Format: Text and citations should preferably conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (21st ed. 2020). Submissions conforming to the 20th edition of the Bluebook are acceptable; however, the Law Review will edit such citations accordingly. Manuscripts should use footnotes, as opposed to endnotes.

Authorship: The Law Review seeks to publish authors from diverse backgrounds. The Law Review welcomes submissions from professors, judges, and practicing lawyers. We will not consider submissions from students outside the Law Review's own membership.

About the American University Law Review

Founded in 1952, the American University Law Review is the oldest and largest student-run publication at the American University Washington College of Law (WCL) and publishes six issues each year. As WCL’s flagship legal publication, the Law Review is ranked among the top fifty law journals in the United States and is the highest-ranked and most-cited publication at WCL.

The Law Review receives approximately 1,500 submissions annually and publishes a wide range of legal scholarship from professors, judges, practicing lawyers, and renowned legal thinkers. The Law Review has published articles or commentary by Supreme Court Chief Justices Warren Burger, William Rehnquist, and Earl Warren, as well as Associate Justices Hugo Black, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Arthur Goldberg. The Law Review has also published articles or commentary by prominent legal figures such as Stephen Bright, Paul Butler, Erwin Chemerinsky, Tom Goldstein, Paul Kamenar, Judge Paul Michel, Judge Stephen Reinhardt, Nadine Strossen, and Laurence Tribe.

In addition to serving as an academic forum for legal scholarship and a research tool for professors and practitioners, the Law Review is committed to developing the writing and research skills of its staff. The Law Review showcases student-written pieces by publishing Notes and Comments, unrestricted in terms of subject or area of the law, in each issue. In support of the staff, the Law Review has an esteemed faculty advisory board, including Professors Ira P. Robbins, Elizabeth Earle Beske, Walter Effross, Christine Haight Farley, Paul Figley, and Stephen Wermiel.

A member of the National Conference of International Law Journals, the Law Review is indexed in LexisNexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline, the Index to Legal Periodicals, and the Resource Index/Current Law Index. Each edition of the Law Review is distributed nationally and abroad to law school libraries, private law firms, public legal organizations, and individual subscribers. With more than sixty years of publications, the Law Review has a strong national and international alumni network, including judges and practitioners in every field.

The Law Review also houses an online companion publication called the Forum. The Forum serves as a platform to generate timely discussion of 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. The Forum also creates more opportunity to advance student-written scholarship by publishing Notes and Comments written by Law Review staff members. Like the print publication, the Forum is available on HeinOnline, Westlaw, and LexisNexis, as well as through the Law Review’s website.