LAW Writing For and Publishing In Law Journals

The majority of law journals in North America are student-edited as serving as a student editor is considered part of the overall law school learning experience.  In Canada, having a student editorial board does not necessarily mean that the law journal does not undertaken an anonymous (blind) or peer review process in the selection of articles for publishing.  Most of the Canadian law journals are, in fact, peer-reviewed or refereed notwithstanding they are edited by students.  This is a significant different between Canadian and American law journals, as very few American law journals are peer-reviewed or refereed.

If your current or future employment requires or values peer-reviewed publishing, please check the individual journal's submission policy on their website or contact the Editor-in-Chief to determine if it is a peer-reviewed or refereed journals.

A few Canadian law journals exclusively focus on the writings of current law students and recent graduates.  These include Appeal: Review of Current Law and Law Reform by the University of Victoria, University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review, and Western Journal of Legal Studies.  These journals are considered peer-reviewed as the selection process is undertaken by fellow law students. 

There are a wide variety of legal publications.  Consider your intended audience and the subject matter of the article when selecting the type of publication.  The publications lists below are not academic, scholarly legal publications.  They are informative in nature, designed to keep their audience aware of changes to the legal profession. 

Authors frequently use journal rankings to measure the quality of the publication.  Unfortunately, there are very few websites or databases that provide rankings for law journals.