Student Organizations and Journals and Student Participation in Administration

Student Organizations

Students at Yale Law School participate in a diverse range of student organizations including chapters of national associations, affinity groups, political groups, projects, competition groups, and clubs. For more information, visit https://yaleconnect.yale.edu/YLSOSA/student_organizations.

Students may list student organization events in the online calendar of events (https://law.yale.edu/calendar).

Student Journals

The Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics (YJHPLE) is an interdisciplinary journal whose staff members come from all of Yale’s graduate and professional schools. The journal publishes pieces on topics ranging from civil rights enforcement in health care delivery to bioterrorism.

The Yale Journal of International Law (YJIL) contains articles and comments written by scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and students on a wide range of topics in public and private international law. Published twice a year, the journal is a primary forum for the discussion and analysis of contemporary international legal problems.

The Yale Journal of Law and Feminism (YJLF) publishes works concerning a broad range of legal issues as they pertain to gender, sexuality, or feminist theory.

The Yale Journal of Law & Liberation (YJLL) offers a space for progressive scholarship, activism, and connection between law students and communities most marginalized by the law.

The Yale Journal of Law & Technology (YJoLT) offers its readers a cutting-edge, dynamic environment in which to acquire and produce knowledge about the interface between law and technology. The journal publishes scholarly articles, incisive think pieces, lectures, and written pieces by guests of the Law & Technology Society as well as other scholars and professionals.

The Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities (YJLH) explores the intersections among law, the humanities, and the humanistic social sciences. It is edited by students from the Law School and several graduate departments in the university and is advised by a board of distinguished scholars.

The Yale Journal on Regulation (JREG) is a national forum for legal, political, and economic analysis of current issues in regulatory policy.

The Yale Law & Policy Review (YLPR) publishes pieces on a wide range of issues at the intersection of law and policy, including affirmative action, campaign finance reform, urban policing, education policy, and the war on terrorism.

The Yale Law Journal (YLJ) is one of the nation’s leading legal periodicals. The Journal publishes articles, essays, and book reviews by legal faculty and other professionals, as well as student notes and comments. An editorial board of second- and third-year students manages and produces eight issues of the Journal per year. The Journal’s online YLJ forum features original essays on timely and novel legal developments as well as responses to articles from the print Journal.

Other Notable Events

The annual Yale Law Revue is a collection of satirical songs, skits, and vignettes written, staged, and performed by law students.

The Rebellious Lawyering Conference (RebLaw) is an annual, student-run conference that brings together practitioners, law students, and community activists to discuss progressive approaches to law and social change.

Student Participation in Administration

Students participate in the administration of the Law School as follows:

  1. There are eleven elected representatives of the student body—three from each J.D. class, one representing the LL.M. and M.S.L. classes, and one representing the J.S.D. class—entitled to be present at faculty meetings and to participate fully in the deliberation of the faculty during these meetings, although the student representatives do not vote.* Meetings of the faculty typically are convened to address academic policy matters. Meetings of other governing bodies of the Law School—such as the Governing Board and the Expanded Governing Board, which consist of tenured, tenure-track, and clinical faculty and deans—are often devoted to faculty hiring matters, and student representatives do not participate in those meetings.
  2. Student representatives are elected for a term of one academic year, commencing with the beginning of the fall term. Representatives for the second- and third-year classes are elected during the spring of the academic year preceding their term of office. Representatives for the first-year and graduate classes are elected at the beginning of the fall term of the academic year for which they will serve. Elections for all classes are held under the auspices of the student representatives in office at the time of the election.
  3. The elected student representatives, and other students selected by appropriate procedures, participate in the work of standing committees of the faculty and, where appropriate, in the work of ad hoc committees. The form and nature of such participation depend upon the character of the work of each committee. All elected student representatives serve on committees.
  4. Yale Law School invites students to share any concerns they might have about the Law School’s curriculum, particularly any issues that directly implicate the school’s compliance with the ABA’s Accreditation Standards. Students having such a concern should submit the concern, in writing, to the associate dean for student affairs, who will work with the appropriate administrator to address the issue. The associate dean for student affairs, or another associate dean, as appropriate, will keep a record of all submissions and their resolutions.

*This entitlement is subject to the limitation that on occasion the faculty may feel it necessary to convene as Faculty in Executive Session. In such an event the dean will, to the extent deemed appropriate, advise the student representatives of the holding of the executive session in advance and invite the student representatives to present to the faculty their views on the subject under consideration; under any circumstances student representatives will be advised of the holding of such meeting promptly thereafter. It is, however, the purpose and expectation of the student body and of the faculty that the academic policy business of the school will normally be conducted in meetings in which student representatives participate.

Student Feedback Regarding ABA Standards

Yale Law School is an ABA-accredited law school and is subject to the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools. The ABA Standards are available at www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/standards.html.

Any prospective, current, or former Yale Law School student who wishes to bring a formal complaint against the Law School alleging a significant problem that directly implicates the school’s program of legal education and its compliance with the ABA Standards should submit the complaint, signed and in writing, to the associate dean of student affairs, the associate dean for academic affairs, or if appropriate another of the Law School’s associate or assistant deans.

The complaint should identify the ABA Standard(s) in question and describe the issue with enough specificity to enable the appropriate Law School associate dean, assistant dean, or other senior administrator to identify and, as appropriate, investigate and respond to the merits of the complaint. The complaint should include the student’s university-provided yale.edu email address or other email address if prospective or former student, telephone number, and street/mailing address to allow further communication about the matter.

The associate dean or assistant dean who receives the complaint will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within fourteen business days, via a message sent to the complaining student’s email address.

Within thirty days of acknowledgment of receipt of the complaint, the associate dean or assistant dean who received the complaint, or if appropriate another of the Law School’s senior administrators, will either meet with the complaining student or respond to the merits of the complaint in writing. The complaining student will either receive a substantive response to the complaint or information about what steps (if any) are being taken by the Law School to address or further investigate the merits of the complaint. If the matter requires further investigation, then within fourteen business days of the investigation’s conclusion, the complaining student will receive either a substantive response to the complaint or information about what steps (if any) are being taken by the Law School to address the merits of the complaint.

Within ten business days of receipt of either a substantive response or information about what steps (if any) are being taken by the Law School to address the merits of the complaint, a complaining student may appeal any decision or course of action regarding the initial complaint to the dean of the Law School. The dean’s decision(s) regarding any appeal will be final.

At the discretion of the dean, the procedures detailed above and associated time constraints may be postponed during times when the Law School is in recess until the following regular session of the Law School.

The Office of Student Affairs and the dean’s office will keep the original complaint and a summary of the response/investigation, appeal, and final disposition of the complaint for a period of ten years from the date of final resolution of the complaint.