Overview

​Vanderbilt Law Review is currently closed to submissions.

The Vanderbilt Law Review publishes six times a year (January, March, April, May, October, and November). We have two selection cycles (spring and fall) per year. The spring cycle begins in early February, and the fall cycle begins in late July/early August. During a selection cycle, we accept submissions on a rolling basis. We continuously review submissions until all slots for that cycle are full, and then we close submissions and do not review any articles until the next cycle begins. If an article is selected for publication, it will be published roughly six to twelve months after it is accepted. We do not accept submissions solely authored by law school students.

Please follow the link immediately below to visit our Scholastica page. The Scholastica page contains the most up to date information about submission windows.

How to Submit

All submissions should include the manuscript (with an abstract), a cover letter, and your CV or resume. We prefer that you submit the manuscript in Microsoft Word format; the cover letter and CV/resume may be submitted as a Word, PDF, or similar file.

We strongly prefer electronic submission through Scholastica. If an email submission is necessary, please send submission materials to articles.review@vanderbilt.edu. If a hard copy submission is absolutely necessary (i.e., neither Scholastica or email is available), please mail your materials to:

Senior Articles Editor
Vanderbilt Law Review
131 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203.

Length of Submission

We accept both articles and essays for publication. For articles, we strongly prefer submissions 20,000–35,000 words, including text and footnotes (40–70 journal pages). Essays are typically under 20,000 words, including text and footnotes. For submissions that exceed these guidelines, length will be a factor that may weigh against extending an offer to publish.

In all but the most exceptional circumstances, we publish book reviews and article responses in our online companion, Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc. Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc considers essays, article responses, and book reviews throughout the year. Please see the En Banc page for more details.

Formatting of Submission

We prefer submissions in the format of a Microsoft Word document. Please use footnotes rather than endnotes. All footnotes should conform to the current edition of The Bluebook.

The Vanderbilt Law Review edits pieces for compliance with the following sources: the Chicago Manual of Style (grammar and style), the Bluebook (citations), Webster’s Third Unabridged Dictionary (hyphenation and spelling), and the Vanderbilt Law Review Style Guide (available upon request).

Theoretical and Empirical Submission Guidelines

The Vanderbilt Law Review values theoretical and empirical contributions to the legal literature. We also value transparency and reproducibility in these articles. For articles that have mathematical proofs, please include these proofs in an appendix to the article. For empirical articles, any procedures, methodology, or robustness checks not included in the body of the article must be included in an appendix to the article. Please have the dataset ready to be sent upon request.

Expedited Review

Upon receiving an offer of publication from another law review, you may request an expedited review of your article. If you have submitted your article via Scholastica, we strongly prefer that you request expedited review through Scholastica. If you have submitted your article via email or mail, you may request expedited review by sending an email to articles.review@vanderbilt.edu. The email must include the author’s name, the title of the submission, the law review that has made the offer, and the deadline (date and time) that the offeror has given for the reply. Please do not send an email if you have already submitted the expedite via Scholastica.

Please note that we will try our best to finish our review before the expedite deadline. However, we are not always able to do so.

Withdrawal

Please let us know if you have decided to withdraw your piece from submission. If you have submitted your article via Scholastica, we strongly prefer that you withdraw the submission through Scholastica. If you have submitted your article via email or mail, you may withdraw the piece by sending an email to articles.review@vanderbilt.edu. The email must include the author’s name and the title of the submission.

Conflicts of Interest

All conflicts of interest must be disclosed in the author’s biographical footnote. This includes any personal or professional financial interests (including research grants) that may be relevant to the subject of the piece. Also, authors must disclose involvement in any litigation relevant to the submission or any non-trivial involvement with for- or not-for-profit associations with a material interest in the article.

Additional Information

Please address any additional questions to the Senior Articles Editor at  articles.review@vanderbilt.edu.