HISTORY & MISSION
Kentucky Law Journal is the tenth oldest continually-published law review in the nation. Continuously published since 1913, five years after the founding of the University of Kentucky College of Law. At that time, books were released monthly. Early issues included book reviews, alumni notes, commentaries on recent cases, and articles by such prominent authors as abolitionist Cassius M. Clay and President William Howard Taft.
The Journal began its current practice of quarterly publication in 1919. Over the past century, the Journal has emphasized scholarly, legal analysis of issues of interest to students, practicing attorneys, professors, judges, and government officials. As stated by one Editorial Board: “It is hoped and believed that ensuing years will see the Kentucky Law Journal grow from strength to strength and that it will exert, as it has already begun to do, a helpful influence upon the bar and bench of this Commonwealth.”
Today, the Journal publishes four annual issues in print as well as online original articles and notes. The Journal is edited by a student editorial board, with guidance from a faculty advisor. Each issue contains articles written by prominent national scholars and notes written by Journal members that encompass a broad range of legal topics.
The Journal’s primary commitment is to publish scholarly articles of interest to the legal community. In this pursuit, the Journal serves as an integral element in the process of education for the best students at the College of Law by training said students in the finest form of legal research and writing. The Journal also affords students opportunities for collaboration, and by publishing student works, the Journal also functions as a forum for student ideas and activism. Beyond the College of Law, the Journal serves the legal and academic community as an arena for scholarly debate in wide-ranging areas of the law.