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The Yale Law Journal is a student-run journal of legal scholarship affiliated to the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the oldest and most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School. The Journal is one of the most cited legal publications in the nation and usually generates the highest number of citations per published article.^[1]

The Journal, which is published eight times per year, contains articles, essays, and book reviews by professional legal scholars as well as student-written notes and comments. It is edited entirely by students. The Journal also publishes an online companion, The Pocket Part, which features op-ed length versions of Journal articles and responses from leading practitioners, policymakers, and scholars, and also serves as a forum for the Journal's readers and authors to discuss legal scholarship.

The Journal, in conjunction with the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, publishes The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, the most widely followed authority for legal citation formats in the United States.

Past editors of the Journal include prominent law professors (Akhil Amar, Ian Ayres, Stephen L. Carter, John Hart Ely, Randall Kennedy, Martha Minow, Joseph Goldstein, Tomiko Brown-Nagin[1]) , political figures (journalist Michael Barone, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Senator Arlen Specter), Supreme Court justices (Abe Fortas, Samuel Alito), and other judges (Guido Calabresi, Robert Katzmann, and Sonia Sotomayor).

The Journal holds a two-part admissions competition each spring, consisting of a 4-5 hour "bluebooking exam," followed by a traditional writing competition. Unlike journals at most law schools, grades are never a factor in admissions to the Yale Law Journal or the selection of journal officers. Although the Journal identifies a target maximum number of members to accept each year, it is not a firm number. Students may also join the staff if they publish a note in the Journal. Due to the relatively small size of Yale Law School, a higher percentage of the student body is a member of the Journal than at other top-tier law schools.

Some of the most cited articles published by the Journal include:

• Charles A. Reich, The New Property, 73 YALE L.J. 733 (1964).
• William L. Prosser, The Assault upon the Citadel (Strict Liability to the Consumer), 69 YALE L.J. 1099 (1960).
• John Hart Ely, The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade, 82 YALE L.J. 920 (1973).
• Thomas I. Emerson, Toward a General Theory of the First Amendment, 72 YALE L.J. 877 (1963).
• Robert H. Mnookin & Lewis Kornhauser, Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: The Case of Divorce, 88 YALE L.J. 950 (1979).
• Bruce A. Ackerman, The Storrs Lectures: Discovering the Constitution, 93 YALE L.J. 1013 (1984).
• Frank R. Easterbrook & Daniel R. Fischel, Corporate Control Transactions, 91 YALE L.J. 698 (1982).
• Joseph William Singer, The Player and the Cards: Nihilism and Legal Theory, 94 YALE L.J. 1 (1984).

1. ^ Law journals' ranking, Washington & Lee Law School.

• The Yale Law Journal
• The Pocket Part
• Fred R. Shapiro, The Most-Cited Articles from The Yale Law Journal, 100 Yale L.J. 1449 (1991)