This FAQ is a good place to start! Law journals and reviews publish legal scholarship, and differ from other academic disciplines in that law journals and reviews are entirely student-run. The field of legal scholarship is, in essence, molded by student editors across the country; they decide what to publish, manage journal production, and work with authors to edit their scholarship. At UCLA, the Assistant Director of Student Publications provides production, training, and editorial support for the fifteen law journals and reviews.
Law journals typically publish legal scholarship around a particular subject, while a law review is a general-subject journal and publishes legal articles of all kinds. For the purposes of this guide and UCLA journal policies, UCLA Law Review is the school’s flagship review, and the 14 journals and reviews are known as specialty journals.
There are plenty to choose from! More information about each publication can be found below by clicking the link through to the publication’s MyLaw page:
The office of Student Affairs coordinates the Spring Journal Application Process (SJAP) from January to February of the spring semester. This application process is open to 1L and 2L students, including transfers, who are interested in applying to at least one of the school’s specialty journals. Interested students are encouraged to apply to up to three journals; however, please note that applicants may receive one offer of journal membership per SJAP.
The Spring Journal Application consists of four parts: a résumé, the Production test, a Statement of Interest, and a ranked journal preference form. Journals may also request additional application materials. Students will be notified of whether they have received an offer of membership approximately three weeks after submitting their Spring Journal Application. Application due dates and additional information about SJAP will be made available during the fall term each year.
After SJAP has concluded, students who were not selected by or chose not to accept an invitation to a journal may inquire with individual journal Editors-in-Chief and submit their materials directly to a journal. For more information, please see the FAQs located under the Journal Membership tab.
UCLA Law Review staff members are selected based on their performance in the Write-On. All first-year students are invited to participate in the Write-On at the end of their 1L year. Joint degree students are also required to participate in the Write-On at the end of their 1L year and will not be allowed to participate during their 2L year.
The Write-On for membership on Law Review consists of three parts: the Comment, the Personal Statement, and the Production Test. Students will be notified of whether they have successfully made it on to Law Review approximately six weeks after the end of the Write-On. All candidates will be evaluated based on their performance during the Write-On. The vast majority of students will be invited to join based on two components: their Write-On score (Comment and Production Test) and their Personal Statement. A small portion of students will be invited to join based on a combination of their Write-On score, Personal Statement, and first-year grades. No students are invited to join Law Review based on grades alone. All students must do well on the Write-On to be selected.
The Write-On typically begins on the Monday after the end of spring semester final examinations and ends seven days later on the following Monday. There is a separate, similar Write-On process for transfer students, which is held at the beginning of transfers’ 2L year, during the first two weeks of the fall semester.
For more information on the Write-on process, please see the Write-On FAQ, or visit https://www.uclalawreview.org/joining-the-law-review.
Journal staff membership is divided into two parts; staff membership, and board membership. Staff members are selected through SJAP or individual application to the journals; as journal staff, students typically do source collection and cite-checking for the articles the journal is working on at that time.
Staff members can typically apply for board membership in March/April of each year, and the functions of board members vary widely; depending on the position, board members may work on ATL edits, BTL edits, symposium planning, article slating, etc. For more information, please see the list of board position descriptions located in Appendix J of the Journals Handbook.
The short answer is: yes. The longer answer is that we really encourage all students to think about whether multiple journal commitments are the right choice for them. Working on the journals is a great way to expand your knowledge of legal scholarship, and to engage with the larger legal community. That being said, journal membership is intended to last through to the end of staff members’ 3L year, and it’s important to understand that commitment when applying. Interested students are encouraged to reflect on the full scope of their professional & personal commitments, as well as their individual bandwidth and interest areas, when considering joining more than one journal/review.
It very much depends on the journal. Most UCLA law journals publish one issue per volume, and one volume per school year. A few journals, such as Women’s Law Journal, publish two issues per volume, one volume each school year. UCLA Law Review, however, publishes 1 volume each year with 6 issues, and issues are published roughly bimonthly.
Yes! Law Review regularly solicits Comments from students. Most UCLA law journals have published student Comments and Notes before, and future issues of Disability Law Journal also intend to publish student work. Calls for submissions will be circulated by email announcement, and will also typically be posted on the journal’s MyLaw page.
If you have a Comment or Note that fits the subject area of any UCLA specialty journals and are interested in publishing in that journal, you can also reach out directly to the journal’s editor-in-chief to inquire about submissions. EICs can be reached at the journals' email addresses (please check each journal's MyLaw or Law School website pages for contact information).
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