Catholic Law Reviews

Rick yesterday posted the comment of a MOJ reader regarding the potential role of law reviews at Catholic law schools and asked for our thoughts.

I think it is fair to say that the primary journals of most Catholic law schools (i.e., the school's "law review" or "law journal" vs. its secondary, often specialized journals) do not see themselves as any different from the primary journals of non-Catholic law schools.  That is, they seek to publish the best articles they can (or, at least, articles by the most prominent legal scholars who will publish with them), regardless of subject matter.  I did a quick, admittedly non-exhaustive, check of the webpages of the primary journals of a number of Catholic law schools and their statements of their journal's philosophy/aim reads no differently from that of non-Catholic law schools.  One notable exception (there may be others - I just did a random check of a number of schools) is the University of St. Thomas Law Journal, whose web page states that the journal seeks to "embod[y] the school's unique mission by publishing excellent legal scholarship that inspires ethical and moral decision-making with an emphasis on social justice."

Having said that, it is the case that a number of Catholic law schools do have journals specifically devoted to advancing Catholic legal thought, e.g. St. John's Journal of Catholic Legal Studies and Villanova's Journal of Catholic Social Thought.  I agree with the author of the post that these, and other journals like then, fill an important role.