Notre Dame Law ReviewEdit

Notre Dame Law Review (NDLR) is the student-edited scholarly journal produced by the Notre Dame Law School at the University of Notre Dame. It serves as a platform for rigorous legal analysis across a wide range of topics, including constitutional law, corporate governance, intellectual property, administrative procedure, and public policy. The journal operates at the intersection of academic theory and practical law, offering students a rigorous training ground in legal writing, citation, and editorial judgment while contributing to the broader policy conversations that shape judges, practitioners, and lawmakers. Its Catholic, scholastic heritage informs a long-standing emphasis on human dignity and the moral dimensions of law, though the publication explicitly welcomes a spectrum of scholarly perspectives so long as arguments are well reasoned and legally grounded.

NDLR is part of the broader ecosystem of law journals that operate under student editors with faculty oversight. Each volume features a mix of articles by professors, practitioners, and visiting scholars, as well as student notes and comments that examine emerging legal questions or reinterpret established doctrine. The journal relies on a robust editorial process that emphasizes thorough citation, clarity of argument, and careful attention to legal precedent. It maintains an active program of symposia and special issues that explore timely questions in law and policy, often reflecting Notre Dame’s distinctive blend of tradition, intellectual seriousness, and engagement with contemporary public life. The journal’s influence and reach are evidenced by widespread citation in courts, academia, and legal practice, and it consistently appears among the top-tier law reviews in independent rankings.

History

NDLR has developed a reputation as a leading venue for serious scholarly writing since its early years in the 20th century. Over the decades it has grown from a campus publication into a national forum for legal ideas, attracting submissions from respected scholars and practitioners and providing a forum for dialogue across different schools of legal thought. The journal’s history mirrors the broader evolution of American legal scholarship, balancing rigorous textual and doctrinal analysis with attention to real-world consequences and policy implications. Its role within Notre Dame Law School and the broader legal academy reflects a commitment to intellectual rigor, professional training, and a public-facing legal discourse.

Editorial Practice and Scholarship

The Notre Dame Law Review is produced through a student-edited process, with a rotating editorial board that selects and edits submissions under supervision of a faculty advisor. This structure aims to cultivate high standards of legal writing and argumentation while ensuring editorial independence within the bounds of professional ethics and academic integrity.
Articles published in NDLR cover constitutional law, statutory interpretation, administrative law, corporate and tax law, intellectual property, and international law, among others. The journal also publishes student notes and comments that apply doctrinal analysis to current issues facing courts and policymakers.
The review uses established citation practices and seeks to balance theoretical insights with practical implications. It participates in the broader scholarly conversation by engaging with leading voices in law and policy, including those who advocate for different interpretive approaches to the Constitution.
In addition to traditional print issues, NDLR maintains digital presence and indexing that helps scholars and practitioners locate its scholarship, contributing to its standing in legal research databases and academic discourse. See also the general law review model and related scholarly journals.

Areas of Focus and Scholarship

NDLR publishes across a broad spectrum of legal topics, with notable emphasis on areas where theory meets application:

Constitutional law and theory, including debates over originalism vs. living constitutionalism, federalism, and the balance of powers.
Religious liberty and the free exercise of conscience, often considering how religious institutions and individuals navigate conflicts with government mandates or secular norms.
Textual and doctrinal interpretation, including discussions of statutory interpretation, the role of precedent, and the limits of judicial power.
Public policy implications of legal doctrine, including analyses of regulatory policy, administrative process, and regulatory reform.
Corporate, securities, and tax law, with attention to market regulation, corporate governance, and the interaction between law and economic activity.
Intellectual property and information law, reflecting the legal landscape of innovation, digital technology, and consumer interests.
International and comparative law, exploring cross-border issues and the influence of foreign legal regimes on U.S. law.

The journal’s approach often foregrounds clear textual analysis, doctrinal rigor, and the implications of legal doctrine for religious liberty, human dignity, and institutional integrity, while engaging with competing viewpoints in a robust and respectful manner.

Influence and Notable Contributors

NDLR has served as a platform for established scholars as well as rising legal thinkers. Its pages have featured works that shape debates in courts and academia, contributing to the development of jurisprudence and policy analysis. The journal also highlights notable alumni and affiliates who have gone on to prominent positions in government, the judiciary, and practice. Among the most prominent connections is Amy Coney Barrett, a renowned figure in constitutional law who is a graduate of the law school and has been associated with the Notre Dame intellectual tradition. Her career, as well as the work of other Notre Dame alumni, has underscored the journal’s role in fostering scholarship that informs high-level legal decision-making. The ND Law Review’s influence is thus felt not only through published articles but also through its role in shaping the legal careers of students who go on to serve in various branches of government and the judiciary. See also Constitutional law and textualism for related scholarly streams.

External observers often note that NDLR sits within a competitive ecosystem of law journals, many of which publish influential articles cited by courts and scholars. Its standing in independent rankings and its frequent engagement with cutting-edge legal questions contribute to its reputation as a leading, credentialed venue for rigorous legal argument.

Controversies and Debates

Like many scholarly venues tied to large research universities, NDLR exists within ongoing debates about scholarly balance, viewpoint diversity, and the direction of legal scholarship. From a traditional or conservative-leaning perspective, critics sometimes argue that law journals, including NDLR, can skew toward progressive or identity-centered approaches in some topics or editorial decisions. Proponents of a stricter, text- and precedent-focused methodology counter that the role of any serious law review is to examine legal texts, historical sources, and doctrinal coherence with intellectual honesty, rather than to advance a social agenda.

From this vantage point, controversies over editorial choices in law reviews are often framed as tensions between rigorous analysis of constitutional and statutory texts and broader social or moral narratives about law and policy. Advocates of a more restrained, conventional approach to jurisprudence contend that the strength of law review scholarship lies in clear reasoning, disciplined analysis of precedent, and attention to the consequences of legal doctrine for stability and predictability in the law. They may argue that concerns about “woke” critiques mischaracterize the enterprise of legal scholarship, which should rest on argument, evidence, and the discipline of the law rather than on shifting social fashions.

NDLR, like other journals, hosts discussions and publishes materials that touch on religious liberty, government power, markets, and civil rights within the framework of rigorous legal reasoning. The journal’s Catholic intellectual heritage is often cited as informing its emphasis on moral dimensions of law and the common good, while it nonetheless welcomes a broad array of legitimate perspectives grounded in legal analysis. Readers interested in these debates can see how the journal situates religious liberty, constitutional interpretation, and policy outcomes within a broader dialogue about law, justice, and liberty.