About the Review

The Alabama Law Review, now approaching its sixty-second volume, is building on a rich tradition of scholarship aimed at exploring issues of national as well as local significance to scholars, legislators, jurists, and practitioners. In its early years, the Review published articles by such leading national figures as Justice Hugo Black, Judge Charles Clark of the United States Court of Appeals and Harry Jones of Columbia Law School, as well as then-emerging (now distinguished, senior) scholar Daniel J. Meador of the University of Virginia. Going back to the very first issue of the Alabama Law Review, published in 1948, the Review has taken progressive stances on the issues of race and civil liberties. In the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education, Alabama Professor Jay Murphy argued against the constitutionality of a legislative attempt to set up segregated schools. His advocacy led to the demise of the proposal. Murphy had previously argued — in “Free Speech and the Atom Bomb” — for expansive protection of civil liberties during the Cold War.

In more recent years, the Alabama Law Review has had innovative symposia on such topics as Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and punitive damages. In recent memory, the Alabama Law Review has been honored to publish a long line of distinguished, senior scholars, including Cass Sunstein, Derrick Bell, Edward Rubin, Akhil Amar, Lea Brilmayer, Kathryn Abrams, Richard Epstein, Steven Lubet, Judith Resnik, Paul Carrington, Richard Delgado, Ruth Colker, Ronald Rotunda, Peter L. Strauss, Robert Brauneis, Fred H. Miller, Barry L. Zaretsky, Russell L. Weaver, Calvin Woodard, Blake Morant, Jan Laitos, Carlos Ball, and Thomas L. Schaffer, among many, many others. We have also had contributions from leading jurists, politicians and lawyers, such as Hon. Patrick Higginbotham, Hon. U. W. Clemon, Hon. Eric G. Bruggink, Bryan A. Stevenson, Albert Brewer, Hon. William Pryor, and from emerging scholars as well. In addition, well-known Alabama faculty and former faculty, such as Bryan K. Fair, Tony Freyer, Wythe Holt, Joseph A. Colquitt, Charles W. Gamble and Martha Morgan, have contributed.

The Alabama Law Review is published five times a year by second and third year law students at the University of Alabama School of Law. In addition to the senior scholars mentioned above, the Review has also become known for publishing works by the very most promising emerging scholars. Many scholars have published their first article or tenure article in the review. The article selection process is rigorous and competitive. The Review typically receives approximately 1600 submissions. Articles are selected by third year editors in consultation with Alabama faculty, who are experts in the subject matter of the articles.

Service on the Alabama Law Review is highly selective. It is an important part of the educational curriculum in the second and third year for those few students selected for membership. In their second year, students cite-check the Review’s articles and notes, and write their own notes under supervision of the third-year staff and faculty. A select group of the very best of those notes are selected for publication during the students’ third year. In their third year, students edit the Review, working closely with the authors, Alabama faculty, and the second year students.