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University of Pennsylvania Law Review |
| University of Pennsylvania Law Review | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | U. Pa. L. Rev. |
| Discipline | Law review |
| Language | English |
| Publication details | |
| Publisher | University of Pennsylvania Law School (United States) |
| Publication history | 1852 to present |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Impact factor | 3.141 (2005) |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 0041-9907 |
| Links | |
The University of Pennsylvania Law Review is a scholarly journal focusing on legal issues, published by an organization of second and third year J.D. students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Volume 157 is being published during the 2008-09 academic year. Six issues are published each volume, with the last issue reprinting papers from a symposium held by the Law Review each year. It is one of the four law reviews responsible for publication of the Bluebook. The Law Review is one of five official scholarly journals at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the fifth most cited law journal in the world.2
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It is the oldest law journal in the United States, having been published continuously since 1852. The journal was founded as the American Law Register, and was originally written, edited, and published by practitioners, but soon expanded its pool of editors and contributors to also include judges and law professors. In 1892, under the leadership of William Draper Lewis and George Wharton Pepper, it changed its name to the American Law Register and Review. In 1895, William Draper Lewis became the first full-time dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Lewis had the Law School take over the journal. The 1896 volume was the first volume to be edited by law students. The journal changed its name in 1908 to the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register, and adopted its current name in 1945.
In addition to publishing numerous influential works of scholarship, the law review has famously published a series of humorous "asides." The most well known is The Common Law Origins of the Infield Fly Rule, 123 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1474 (1975).
Positions on the Law Review are filled based in part on students' grades during first year of law school and in part on students' performance during a writing competition conducted at the end of each school year. The writing competition has two major parts: an editing portion and a writing portion. During the editing portion, contestants are required to correct a sample portion of a fake law review article prepared by the current Law Review board. Contestants have at their disposal a copy of the Bluebook and a packet of source materials provided by the Law Review. During the writing portion, contestants are required to create a cohesive, thesis-driven essay using only a set of sources provided by the Law Review. The sources cover a variety of topics, and the essay does not need to be law-related. Each year the Law Review takes approximately 50 new members from the rising second-year class. The Law Review is managed by a board of 17 members chosen from the rising 3L class in February of each year.
Prominent alumni of the Penn Law Review include William Draper Lewis, George Wharton Pepper, Philip Werner Amram, Sadie Alexander, Thomas K. Finletter, Natalie Wexler, Loftus Becker, Owen Roberts, Alfred W. Putnam, Jr., Curtis Reitz, Peter J. Liacouras, Edward J. Normand, Dolores Sloviter, Marci Hamilton, Arthur Raymond Randolph, Mark G. Yudof and Daniel Garodnick.