The Stanford Law Review was organized in 1948. Warren Christopher, the Law Review’s first President, opened Volume 1 with a description of the Law Review’s aims:

A dual goal is set for the Review: to publish a journal of worth to lawyers and to provide an educational experience of value to students. Fortunately, these goals are complementary.

These principles shall guide us: care, precision, and impartiality are vital; the economic, political, and social forces which mold the law deserve special emphasis; investigation of developing legal problems in advance of their widespread litigation is to be encouraged; readability is a necessity.

The Stanford Law Review Online was founded in 2011 to supplement to the Law Review’s print editions with short, accessible, and timely pieces of legal scholarship.

To this day, the Law Review has two principal functions: to educate and foster intellectual discourse among the student membership and to contribute to legal scholarship by addressing important legal and social issues. It serves these dual functions each year through the publication of one print volume with six separate issues—published once a month from January through June. These issues contain original scholarship by, among others, Law Review members, other Stanford Law School students, professors, judges, and practicing attorneys.

The Law Review is operated entirely by Stanford Law School students and is fully independent of faculty and administration review or supervision. Student Law Review editors select, edit, and publish articles and notes on the cutting edge of legal scholarship. They are trained to critically and comprehensively evaluate submissions. Through a team-editing process, they address each piece’s analysis, writing style, research, organization, and accuracy and work closely with authors to improve their work. In addition, student authors who submit notes for publication receive extensive editorial assistance.