The ''ABA Journal'' (since 1984, formerly ''American Bar Association Journal'', 1915–1983, evolved from '' Annual Bulletin'', 1908–1914) is a monthly

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...

trade magazine A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for t ...

and the flagship publication of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

. It is now complemented online by a full-featured website, abajournal.com and its various e-newsletters and apps.

History

Bulletin

In 1908, the ''Annual Bulletin'' was founded by the Comparative Law Bureau (1907–1933) of the

. The first

comparative law Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law (legal systems) of different countries. More specifically, it involves the study of the different legal "systems" (or "families") in existence in the world, including the ...

journal in the U.S., it surveyed foreign legislation and legal literature. Circulated to all ABA members, it ran from 1908 to 1914 and was absorbed in 1915 by the ABA's newly formed ''Journal''.

Journal

In 1915, the ''American Bar Association Journal'' (abbreviated ''Am. Bar Assoc. j.'') was founded as a quarterly magazine. Published by the ABA, it ran under this title from January 1915 to December 1983, for volume 1 to 69. Quarterly from 1915 to 1920LOC, "American Bar Association journal". (with its second quarter issue dedicated to the ''Bulletin''), it became monthly in 1921. In January 1984, it was renamed ''ABA Journal'' (abbreviated ''ABA j.'') for volume 70 onwards. Subtitled "The Lawyer's Magazine", it initially stayed monthly,LOC, "ABA journal". then in May 1986 became 15 issues a year, then in June 1999 became monthly again. In 2007, the print circulation (paid and unpaid)ABAJ 2009, "FAQ". was 375,045ABAJ, "Mediakit". (stable from 381,998 in December 1999). From 2012 to the end of 2017, the executive editor and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

was Allen Pusey. In February 2018, Molly McDonough, was named editor and publisher. John O'Brien took over as editor and publisher in November 2019.

Online

ABA Journal (Online)

In 1996, an online complement to the ''Journal'' appeared on the ABA website. This original version had monthly updates providing the current ''Journals cover and table of contents, as well as online copies of some selected articles, rising through various design changes from about 3 per month in 1996 to about 15 per month in 2000, to about 30 per month with the January 2001 new look announcing "Soon, every story in the print edition will also be available online." In 1999, the domain name ABAJournal.com had been registered and set as a redirect to the ABA website's ''Journal'' home.

ABAJournal.com

In January 2002,Kim 2002. the site had a major redesign in form and content under then editor and publisher Danial J. Kim. The site's logo was updated to show "ABAJournal.com" as official web address (though still redirected to the ABA website). In addition to the full monthly magazine, it featured daily updates (intended to improve the mobile edition) and a weekly email newsletter called the eReport (the ABA Journal eReport). Around this time, the whole collection of the first ''Journal'' (1915–1983) was made available on the subscription website

HeinOnline HeinOnline (HOL) is a commercial internet database service launched in 2000 by William S. Hein & Co., Inc. (WSH Co), a Buffalo, New York publisher specializing in legal materials. The company began in Buffalo, New York, in 1961 and is currently b ...

ABA Journal – Law News Now

On July 23, 2007,Griffin 2007. the site was relaunched under then editor and publisher Edward A. Adams in a Web 2.0 version. Subtitled "Law News Now", it features breaking legal news updated daily and analysis from more than 2,000 legal blogs,ABAJ, "About". as well as a free archive of the full-text magazine since its January 2004 issue,, th
"Magazine Archives"
section offers a free collection of all issues since January 2004. with a search engine. Technically, the magazine is now hosted directly on the ABAJournal.com web address (instead of the domain being redirected to the ABA's website).

References

* ABAJ (2009)
"About the ABA Journal"
www.abajournal.com, consulted in March 2009 * ABAJ (2009)
"FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions"
www.abajournal.com, consulted in March 2009 * ABAJ (2009)
"Mediakit ABA Journal"
www.abajournal.com, consulted in March 2009 * Griffin, Marie (2007)
"Redesigned ABAJournal.com balances editorial and user judgment"
''BtoB Online'', www.btobonline.com, September 4, 2007 * Kim, Danial J. (2002)

( Archive.org copy), ''ABA Journal Online'', January 2002 (

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

required for archived images) * LOC (2009). "American Bar Association journal", (also ),

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

Online Catalog, consulted in March 2009 — With frequency history. * LOC (2009). "ABA journal", (also ),

Online Catalog, consulted in March 2009 — With frequency history.

External links

''ABA Journal''
at

JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aba Journal American Bar Association Quarterly magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States English-language magazines Legal magazines Professional and trade magazines Magazines established in 1984 Magazines published in Chicago