University of Chicago Legal Forum


The University of Chicago Legal Forum is a student-edited journal. It focuses on a single, highly relevant, legal issue every year, presenting an authoritative and timely approach to a particular topic. To facilitate this, the Legal Forum hosts a symposium each fall and the participants contribute articles for the volume.

History

The University of Chicago Legal Forum was first published in 1985, making it the University of Chicago Law School’s second-oldest journal. The Legal Forum is a student-edited journal that hones in on a single cutting-edge legal topic every year.
Each fall, the Legal Forum hosts a symposium, with the participants then contributing articles for the volume that will ultimately be published. For November 2015, the Symposium is entitled "Policing the Police" and will subsequently be published as Volume 2016. Additional topics in others years have included "Does Election Law Serve the Electorate?", "The Civil Rights Act at 50 Years", "Frontiers of Consumer Protection", "Combating Corruption", "Governance and Power", "Crime Criminal Law and the Recession", "Law in a Networked World", "Immigration Law and Policy, Law and Life: Definitions and Decisionmaking", and "Cutting-Edge Issues in Class Action Litigation."
Since its founding and each year thereafter, members of academia, the judiciary, and the bar have participated in the Legal Forum symposia. Past participants and published authors have included Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Judge Richard Posner, Judge Frank Easterbrook, Judge Diane Wood, Judge Abner Mikva, Judge Patricia Wald, Judge Danny Boggs, Dean Lee Bollinger, Professor Randall Kennedy, Professor Cass Sunstein, Professor Lani Guinier, Professor Richard Epstein, Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, and Professor Akhil Reed Amar.
Legal Forum articles have also been cited in numerous judicial opinions. In addition, the Legal Forum has been mentioned in publications such as the New York Times and Irish Examiner. The Legal Forum and its authors have also been featured on the University of Chicago's main website.

Past Issues

Past issues can be found online through HeinOnline, a well-regarded academic database.