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Academic

: The Faculty Lounge

Which Law Reviews Still Publish Book Review Essays?

By propertyprof

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In light of our recent discussion of trends in book reviews, one loyal reader asked for some more specific data: which reviews still publish book review essays? So that sent me back to the Index to Legal Periodicals for the last three years. I looked through their index to book reviews, looking to see which major law reviews published in the United States have published essay reviews of late. (I omitted journals published in Canada, the UK, and other countries, with the thought that they would probably be less interested in reviews of books on United States law; I also omitted journals that typically publish short reviews, like the Law and History Review, the American Journal of Legal History, and the American Journal of International Law. My sense is that most of the shorter reviews are solicited.)

So here's an admittedly rough list of reviews that have published essay reviews recently. Of course, I'm guessing that other reviews are still interested in essay reviews, even they just may not have published one in the past three years or so. I understand that the Alabama Law Review is one of those--it's published essay reviews not too many years ago and is interested in more. As always, I'd be most appreciative of readers and law review editors who can fill out the list.

Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law, and Justice

Boston College Third World Law Review

Boston University Law Review

Brooklyn Law Review

Buffalo Law Review

Cardozo Law Review

Case Western Law Review

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Columbia Law Review

Constitutional Commentary

Cornell Law Review

Feminsit Legal Studies

Fordham Law Review

Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics

Georgetown Law Journal

Green Bag

Harvard Civil Rights--Civil Liberties Law Review

Harvard International Law Journal

Harvard Law Review

Illinois Law Review

Journal of Law and Religion

Journal of Legal Education

Law and Literature

Law and Social Inquiry

Lewis and Clark Law Review

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Michigan Law Review

Minnesota Law Review

Mississippi Law Journal

Nebraska Law Review

New York Universit Law Review

Northwestern University Law Review

North Dakota Law Review

NYU Journal of International Law and Politics

Penn State Law Review

Roger Williams Law Review

Saint Louis University Law Review

San Diego Law Review

Santa Clara Law Review

South Carolina Law Review

South Dakota Law Review

Southern Methodist Law Review

Stanford Journal of International Law

Stanford Law Review

Syracuse Law Review

Temple Law Review

Tennessee Law Review

Texas Law Review

Touro Law Review

Tulane Law Review

UCLA Women's Law Journal

University of Chicago Law Review

University of Colorado Law Review

University of Miami Law Review

Virginia Law Review

William Mitchell Law Review

Yale Journal of International Law

Yale Journal of Law and Humanities

Yale Law and Policy Review

Yale Law Journal

It's a pretty interesting list; I was also surprised at how few books are given extensive essay reviews--and how few journals publish more than a handful of such reviews. My very rough sense based on my quick reading of the last three years of the ILP is that other than Harvard, Michigan, Texas, and Law and Social Inquiry, few journals are publishing essay reviews on a regular basis. Sometime soon I ought to look at the books reviews in those places, to get a sense of how much attention on books is concentrated (or not). I think one of the great virtues of book reviews is the chance to have a sustain examination and discussion of ideas, which happens far too infrequently in our business. But what I'm now beginning to fear is that attention is focused on a relatively small number of books.

Alfred Brophy

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on January 26, 2009 (boomark / email).