The ''Michigan State Law Review'' is a

law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pr ...

published by students at

Michigan State University College of Law The Michigan State University College of Law (Michigan State Law or MSU Law) is the law school of Michigan State University, a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan. Established in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law, it was the ...

. It is the flagship journal of the school and it publishes five issues per year. According to the Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking, ''Michigan State Law Review'' was the 48th highest-ranked flagship legal journal in 2022, a dramatic increase from its ranking of 332rd in 2003. The journal hosts an annual

academic conference An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic or scientific journal ...

of global legal experts with past events covering issues such as autonomous vehicles, quantitative legal analysis, civil rights, and intellectual property. Professor David Blankfein-Tabachnick has served as Faculty Advisor of the journal since his appointment in 2016. In 2018, the journal began publishing an annual "Visionary Article Series," which features the work of one prominent legal scholar per year. ''Michigan State Law Review'' has published the works of numerous legal scholars, such as Robert Post, a legal scholar and former dean of Yale Law School,

Mark Lemley Mark A. Lemley (born c. 1966) is currently the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the Director of the Stanford Law School Program in Law, Science & Technology, as well as a founding partner of the law firm of Durie Tan ...

, a professor at

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

and renowned intellectual property scholar, Scott L. Kafker, a justice on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, and Nathalie Martin, professor of consumer and bankruptcy law at

University of New Mexico School of Law The University of New Mexico School of Law (UNM Law or New Mexico Law) is the law school of the University of New Mexico, a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1947, it is the first and only law school in the state. ...

. The journal has also published the scholarship of

Dennis Archer Dennis Wayne Archer (born January 1, 1942) is an American lawyer, jurist and former politician from Michigan. A Democrat, Archer served as Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit. He later served as president of the Amer ...

, a former Michigan Supreme Court justice and an alumnus of the school.

History

Prior to the founding of the ''Michigan State Law Review'', the school published a periodical known as ''The Brief Case''. Although this was met with approval, potential authors who were unaffiliated with the school requested to be published. In response, a law review was established. The ''Michigan State Law Review'', then known as the ''Detroit Law Review'', released its first publication in June 1931. At the time, the school was known as the Detroit College of Law. After seven years, the ''Detroit Law Review'' ceased publication in 1938, but was brought back for three issues during the 1947-48 academic year. Following another hiatus, the journal was revived in 1975. In conjunction with the school's integration into Michigan State University, the journal went through a series of name changes: ''Detroit College of Law Review'' (1975-1995), ''Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University Law Review'' (1995-1999), ''The Law Review of Michigan State University, Detroit College of Law'' (1999-2003), ''Michigan State DCL Law Review'' (2003-2003), and ''Michigan State Law Review'' (2003–present).

Publications

The ''Michigan State Law Review'' publishes five issues per year, one of which is a symposium that focuses on a particular legal topic. Additionally, the journal publishes an annual "Visionary Article Series" article.

Symposia

Each year, one of the ''Michigan State Law Reviews issues is a symposium, a legal academic conference that focuses on a particular area of law. In the 2018-2019 academic year, the ''Michigan State Law Review'' transitioned to a book symposium format, where authors visit the College of Law and workshop their pieces for the symposium in front of journal members and law school faculty. In recent years, the annual symposia topics have been as follows: * 2013 (Fall): Whether the United States should become a party to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women * 2014 (Spring): Reflections on ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

'' and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in conjunction with the Michigan State University College of Education and the

University of Missouri–Kansas City The University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) is a public research university in Kansas City, Missouri. UMKC is part of the University of Missouri System and one of only two member universities with a medical school. As of 2020, the university ...

* 2014 (Fall): Public Domain(s): Law, Generating Knowledge, and Furthering Innovation in the Information Economy * 2015 (Spring): Civil rights and persuasive arguments in issues such as same-sex rights, abortion law, racial conflicts, voting rights, and animal rights * 2015 (Fall): Quantitative analysis in law * 2016 (Spring): Autonomous vehicle technology and the law * 2017 (Spring): The emerging legal analytics industry and empirical legal studies * 2018 (Spring): Truth and Reconciliation in Post-Ferguson America * 2018-2019: The intersection of private values and public law * 2019-2020: The intersection of law, language, and technology * 2020-2021: Property Ownership and Entitlement: Gender, Religion, & Culture * 2021-2022: The Evolving Realm of Soft IP: Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Secrets, and Publicity Rights

Visionary Article Series

In 2018, ''Michigan State Law Review'' began publishing a "Visionary Article Series" that aims to "honor a single legal scholar who has had a profound impact on a field of law by publishing a work of his or hers with a special designation." In the inaugural year, the journal published an article on administrative regulation by Richard Revesz, director of the American Law Institute and professor and former dean at the

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...

. In 2019, the series continued with an article by

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

professor and former dean Robert Post that analyzed the chief justiceship of

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

. In 2020, the journal published an article by the Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at

, professor Daniel Markovits. Currently, ''Michigan State Law Review'' is in the process of publishing the 2021 Visionary Scholar Article by

Eduardo Peñalver Eduardo M. Peñalver is an American law professor who is the president of Seattle University. From 2014 until 2021, Peñalver was dean of Cornell Law School. Peñalver has served as the President of Seattle University since July 1, 2021, and i ...

, professor and dean of Cornell Law School, which will precede a planned 2022 article by

Akhil Amar Akhil Reed Amar (born September 6, 1958) is an American legal scholar known for his expertise in constitutional law and criminal procedure. He holds the position of Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, and is an ad ...

, professor of law at

Notable Authors Published

''Michigan State Law Review'' has published the works of many prominent legal scholars, including: *

, professor at Yale Law School who the Supreme Court of the United States has cited to on 45 occasions *

, former Michigan Supreme Court justice and former mayor of Detroit, Michigan * Anita Bernstein, legal scholar and Professor of Law at

Brooklyn Law School Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty. Brookly ...

* Anya Bernstein, researcher and professor at the University of Buffalo School of Law *

Jim Chen Jim Chen is an American legal scholar known for his expertise in constitutional law. He holds the Justin Smith Morrill Chair in Law at Michigan State University College of Law. From 2007 to 2012, he served as the dean of the University of Louisv ...

, constitutional law scholar and former dean of the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law *

Deborah Denno Deborah West Denno (born June 6, 1952) is an American legal scholar and criminologist who studies the intersection of biology, neuroscience, and criminal law. She is the Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law at the Fordham University School of Law, ...

, legal scholar and professor at the

Fordham University School of Law Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. In 2013, 91% of the law school's first-time test t ...

Seymour Drescher Seymour Drescher (born 1934) is an American historian and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, known for his studies on Alexis de Tocqueville and slavery and his published work ''Econocide''. Career Seymour Drescher has been publishin ...

, historian and professor at the University of Pittsburgh *

Paul Finkelman Paul Finkelman (born November 15, 1949) is an American legal historian, the Robert E. and Susan T. Rydell Visiting Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, and a research affiliate at the Max and Tessie Zelikovitz Centre f ...

, legal historian and president of Gratz College * Clayton Gillette, professor at NYU School of Law * Scott L. Kafker, Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts * Edmund Kitch, professor at the University of Virginia School of Law * Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, associate professor at Stanford Law School *

, professor of law at Stanford Law School and the Director of the Stanford Law School Program in Law, Science & Technology, as well as a founding partner of the law firm of Durie Tangri LLP * Michael A. Livermore, professor at University of Virginia School of Law * Julia Mahoney, professor at the University of Virginia School of Law * Nathalie Martin, legal researcher and professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law * Linda McClain, professor at the Boston University School of Law and former professor at Hofstra Law School * Robert Merges, professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law * Frank Partnoy, legal scholar and professor of the University of California Berkeley School of Law * Richard J. Pierce, legal scholar and professor at the George Washington University School of Law * Robert Post, legal scholar and former dean of Yale Law School * Richard Revesz, director of the American Law Institute and professor at the New York University School of Law * Duane Rudolph, former visiting assistant professor of law at Peking University School of Transnational Law *

Loren A. Smith Loren A. Smith (born December 22, 1944) is a senior judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims. He served as the court's Chief Judge from 1986 to 2000. Early life, education, and career Smith was born on December 22, 1944, in Chicago ...

, Senior Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims * Matthew Stephenson, professor at Harvard Law School * Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid, professor at Fordham University School of Law * Edward J. McCaffery, professor at

USC Gould School of Law The USC Gould School of Law, located in Los Angeles, California, is the law school of the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law traces its beginnings to 1896 and became affiliated w ...

Jens David Ohlin Jens David Ohlin is an American academic administrator and legal scholar. He became the Allan R. Tessler Dean of Cornell Law School on July 1, 2021. Biography Ohlin graduated from Phillips Academy. He then received his B.A. from Skidmore Coll ...

, Dean of Cornell Law School

Editors-in-Chief

* 2011-2012: Amanda Josephine-Hicks Frank * 2012-2013: Lisa Colomba Ferro Hackett * 2013-2014: Rachael Roseman * 2014-2015: Leah Jurss * 2015-2016: Jennifer Muse * 2016-2017: Christopher Kozak * 2017-2018: Andrew Newton * 2018-2019: Celia Kaechele * 2019-2020: Emily Sosolik * 2020-2021: Kylee Nemetz * 2021-2022: Brandon Paul Cross * 2022-2023: Hugh J. Theut

References

External links

Official website

Archive of published issues
at

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{{Michigan State University, state=collapsed American law journals General law journals Michigan State University Publications established in 1931 English-language journals University of Michigan 1931 establishments in Michigan Law journals edited by students 5 times per year journals