Denver Law Review

About Denver Law Review

About the Denver Law Review

The Denver Law Review is the flagship law review of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in Denver, Colorado, United States, edited and published by the law school's students. It is a generalist law review of unusual longevity: founded in 1923, it has published continuously under a succession of names for more than a century, and it now appears four times a year in print, with an online supplement, the Denver Law Review Forum, carrying shorter and more timely pieces and podcasts. The review states its aim simply - to publish articles of the highest quality in all areas of the law - and it actively seeks submissions from professors, practitioners and judges from all practice areas. Its recent record in Scopus-based listings is carried under the ISSNs 2469-6463 (print) and 2469-6471 (electronic), the identifiers stored for this profile, while the University of Denver's own repository page for the review lists the long-standing ISSN 0883-9409, an identifier history explained in the identity note below and worth understanding before citing the journal.

Student-edited law reviews occupy a distinctive place in American legal scholarship, and Denver's is a classic example of the form. Authority over content rests with a student editorial board, renewed annually; faculty and the college support the enterprise, and in Denver's case the College of Law has been sole publisher since 1966. The review's pages have carried authors of the first rank - its own history names United States Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, William O. Douglas and Byron White, the constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, and the consumer advocate Ralph Nader - alongside the student comments and Tenth Circuit survey pieces that form its other, equally deliberate mission: serving the law of the federal Tenth Circuit and its constituent states, to which one full issue each year is devoted.

An identity note on names and numbers is essential for this journal, because a century of publication produces both. The journal began in 1923 as the Denver Bar Association Record, became Dicta in 1928, the Denver Law Center Journal in 1968, and the Denver University Law Review in 1985, before adopting its current name, Denver Law Review, in 2015. Bibliographic records follow those eras: the ISSN 0883-9409 listed by the university repository belongs to the journal's long run under its earlier titles and is still shown on the university's page for the current review, while Scopus and SCImago list the current title, from its 2015 renaming, under ISSNs 2469-6463 and 2469-6471, with coverage from 2015. Neither set is a mistake; they describe different eras of one journal, and authors citing older material should cite the title and identifier of the era in which the piece appeared.

History and Development

The review's founding in 1923 as the Denver Bar Association Record placed it in the first generation of American law reviews outside the oldest eastern law schools, and its early identity was tied to the organised bar of Denver as much as to the university. Renamed Dicta in 1928, it published under that evocative title for four decades. The College of Law began co-publishing the review in 1949 and became its sole publisher in 1966, the point at which the journal's modern institutional form - a law-school law review, student-edited - was settled. Two years later, in 1968, the title became the Denver Law Center Journal, and in 1985 it took the name by which two generations of lawyers knew it, the Denver University Law Review. The current, shorter title, Denver Law Review, dates from 2015, and it is from that renaming that the Scopus coverage and the current ISSN pair date in the index records consulted.

The review's structure has been as durable as its institution. It publishes four issues in each volume: issues of general legal interest, a Tenth Circuit issue, and a symposium issue drawn from its annual symposium. The Tenth Circuit commitment is the review's signature. The second issue of each volume is devoted to topics of special interest for the Tenth Circuit and its states, and the wider programme includes an annual Tenth Circuit survey examining recent developments in that circuit's law, with student comments on recent cases and introductory essays by prominent circuit figures - recent decades have featured Judges Timothy Tymkovich, Michael W. McConnell and Marcia Krieger among those essayists, in the review's own accounts. In 2008 the review added a special fifth issue on the historic presidential campaign and election of that year, an exception that shows the form's flexibility. The Forum, the review's online arm, was created as a faster supplement - part legal blog in agility, part law review in analysis - publishing shorter pieces, online symposia material, previews and student summaries of Tenth Circuit cases, and podcasts.

That combination - generalist ambition, a regional circuit mission, a symposium culture and a fast online supplement - explains the review's standing in the American law-review ecology. It is neither a specialty journal nor a purely local one. SCImago places it in Law, its citation record stretches across the general legal literature, and its volumes are a standard holding in American law libraries and in the major legal databases through which practitioners actually read law reviews.

Publisher, Governance and the Student-Editor Model

The publisher is the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, which has published the review solely since 1966. Editorial governance follows the American law-review pattern: a student board, headed by an editor-in-chief (a role whose current holder should be taken from the review's own editorial-board page, since the board turns over annually), makes publication decisions, edits accepted pieces with their authors, and runs the review's candidacy process for new student members. The review's own submissions page states the working relationships clearly: authors whose work is taken work with the Senior Articles Editor and the Editor-in-Chief through the publication process, and the review's office sits in the Sturm College of Law at 2255 East Evans Avenue, Denver.

Candidacy - the route by which Denver law students join the review - is itself part of the journal's governance story, and the review publishes its outlines: first-year day students and first- and second-year night students may write on during the review's single spring candidacy period, transfer students may attempt candidacy immediately before the autumn semester, and candidacy involves a written case comment, a leadership exercise and a Bluebook editing exercise in the current description on the journal's site. For outside authors, the significance is practical rather than ceremonial: the people reading a submission are advanced law students trained, through that candidacy and through board service, in exactly the skills a law-review submission must survive - citation form under the Bluebook, argumentative structure, and accuracy of legal citation. Manuscripts that respect that craft are visibly easier for such a board to say yes to.

The college's Sturm name, carried since the law school's naming in honour of its benefactor, appears across the review's publisher statements; index records likewise give the publisher as University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Authors addressing correspondence should use the review's own published addresses rather than aggregator listings: submissions correspondence is handled as the next sections describe.

Scope and Subject Coverage

The review is a generalist law review: it strives to publish articles of the highest quality in all areas of the law, and it invites submissions from professors, practitioners and judges from all practice areas. Within that generalist frame, three standing commitments shape each volume. First, general-interest scholarship in any field of law - constitutional, private, criminal, commercial, environmental, technology and the rest - fills the general issues and the symposium issue. Second, the Tenth Circuit issue concentrates on topics of special interest for the Tenth Circuit and its constituent states, from federal practice and jurisdiction to the substantive fields in which that circuit's case law is developing. Third, the symposium issue publishes papers from the review's annual symposium on a developing legal topic, with national scholars among its contributors.

Student work has a defined and honourable place in that structure rather than a marginal one: the review publishes up to four student comments through the year and the Tenth Circuit survey's run of student comments on recent cases, in its own subscription-page description. Practitioner writing is likewise welcomed in fact as well as in invitation; the review's subscriber description notes that most of its articles are authored by law professors, judges and practising attorneys. Authors from outside the United States should note the obvious: this is an American law review, working in American legal sources and citation form, and work whose legal materials are entirely those of another system will usually belong elsewhere unless its argument is framed for an American legal audience or carries a comparative dimension those readers can use.

The Forum extends the scope in time rather than in subject: shorter, more timely pieces, responses and case summaries that cannot wait for a print cycle, and podcast content. An author with a strong, compact argument on a breaking development - a new Tenth Circuit decision, a pending Supreme Court question with Colorado or circuit dimensions - may find the Forum the review's most receptive door, and its site sets out the Forum's own route for such pieces.

Who Publishes in the Journal and Who Reads It

The author community is the American legal profession in its scholarly mood: law professors as the largest group, judges and practising attorneys in substantial numbers, law clerks (whom the submissions page names expressly among those invited), and the review's own student members through comments and survey pieces. The roll of past authors named by the review - three Supreme Court Justices across its history, leading constitutional scholars, prominent advocates - indicates the company a published author keeps, and also the standard the student board understands itself to be maintaining.

Readers are law libraries, courts, practitioners, and scholars, reached through print subscription, the review's site, the University of Denver's Digital Commons repository - which holds the review and its Forum archive, including Forum material from 2013 to 2018 in the repository collection described by the university - and the commercial legal databases through which American law reviews are ordinarily read. Subscription terms on the review's own page are forty dollars per volume, with a five-dollar supplement for addresses outside the United States, renewed automatically unless the subscriber cancels. For an author, that distribution means a Denver piece is realistically available to the Tenth Circuit bar and to American legal academics, which is precisely the audience its circuit mission targets.

Peer Review and Editorial Process: the Law-Review Model

American law reviews do not use anonymous peer review, and the Denver Law Review's process should be understood on its own terms rather than marked against a scientific journal's. Publication decisions are made by the student editorial board through its articles editors, reading submissions in the light of the review's needs for its general, circuit and symposium issues. The review publishes the working parameters that matter most to authors: it considers articles from professors, practitioners, judges and law clerks; it does not consider article submissions from students who are not members of the review; solicitation for Issue 1 begins on 1 February and for Issue 3 on 1 August; authors should allow at least twenty days for review of electronic, hard-copy and Scholastica submissions; and requests for expedited review must name the author, the journal or journals offering publication, and the date by which an answer is required. Authors who are offered publication are notified by email, and then work with the Senior Articles Editor and the Editor-in-Chief through editing to publication.

Expedited review - the expedite - is a normal, declared feature of this market, not an impropriety: authors holding an offer elsewhere may ask Denver to decide by a stated date, supplying the details above through the same channel as the submission. Equally normal are the practical expectations the board's own guidance implies: an abstract of not more than 150 words and a current resume or curriculum vitae with the submission, a cover letter giving title and contact details, and a manuscript in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF following Bluebook citation form, in the summary of the review's requirements carried in law-library submission guides. Student comments follow their own internal route through candidacy and membership, and are not open to outside submission.

Fees, Subscriptions and Access

The review charges authors no submission or publication fee in any material consulted for this profile; its economics are those of the traditional law review - institutional support from its law school plus print subscriptions - and no article processing charge is described on its site. A Directory of Open Access Journals search by its ISSNs, carried out for this profile, returned no listing, and the review should not be described as a DOAJ-listed open-access journal; its free availability runs through the Forum's online publication, the university repository's holdings and its own site, alongside the traditional print and database channels. Authors whose funders impose strict open-access conditions should discuss those conditions with the editorial board before accepting an offer, because the law-review model's rights arrangements differ from those of open-access scientific journals, and this profile does not state a licence for the review's print content, none having been published in the sources consulted.

Indexing and Metrics

Scopus-based records give the review a measurable profile under its current title. SCImago reports an SJR of 0.167 and an h-index of 22 in the summary record consulted, with a Law category position of Q3 and coverage from 2015 to 2023 in that record, under the ISSNs 2469-6471 and 2469-6463; a second summary of the same SCImago data gives similar standing with an overall rank in the twenty-three-thousands. Legal-periodical-specific measures tell the complementary story: a 2024 metrics compilation for the review reports a Journal Impact Factor of 0.40 and a five-year figure of 0.60, with total documents of 712 and SCImago total citations of 576 in that compilation - figures quoted here as reported by that compilation, not verified directly from Clarivate or Scopus for this profile. Law-specific ranking systems, including the Washington and Lee law journal rankings that legal academia actually consults, are the natural home for judging a law review's standing, and authors should read the review's current position there rather than relying on any single number reproduced here.

A metrics caution specific to this journal belongs on the record. An OpenAlex lookup by the stored ISSNs for this profile returned a merged source record that also serves other journals and whose totals cannot be attributed to the Denver Law Review alone; its figures are therefore not cited here, and the record is noted as could not be verified for this title. That caution does not extend to the journal's age or authorship history, which rest on the review's and the university's own accounts. The longer historical truth about this journal's influence - a century of continuous publication, Tenth Circuit essays by sitting circuit judges, articles by Supreme Court Justices - is not capturable by an SJR figure covering only the years since its 2015 renaming, and readers should hold both timescales in view at once.

How to Submit

The review publishes four issues per volume and invites article submissions through three routes published on its submissions page: electronically through Scholastica, the submission platform widely used by American law reviews; by email to the review's published address, law-lawrev@du.edu; or in hard copy addressed to the Senior Articles Editor, Denver Law Review, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, 2255 East Evans Avenue, Suite 425, Denver, Colorado 80208. The practical calendar matters: solicitation for Issue 1 begins on 1 February and for Issue 3 on 1 August, and law-library guidance on the review notes the favourable submission windows as late February to mid-April and early August to mid-October. Allow at least twenty days for review, in the review's own instruction. Prepare the package as the board expects it: manuscript in Word or PDF, Bluebook citation form, abstract of not more than 150 words, resume or curriculum vitae, and a cover letter with title and full contact details. Pieces for the Tenth Circuit issue follow a distinct route the review publishes: a topic proposal to the Tenth Circuit Articles Editor named on the submissions page - proposals were being taken for Volume 104 in the version consulted - and Forum pieces follow the Forum's own page. Student authors who are not members of the review should not submit articles; that exclusion is stated expressly by the review.

Is This Journal Right for Your Paper?

The Denver Law Review is a strong home for a well-crafted American legal article of general interest, for work on the Tenth Circuit and its states, and for symposium-connected scholarship, from professors, judges, practitioners and clerks who want a century-old, student-edited flagship with a real regional mission and a national readership. It rewards exactly what its editors are trained to value: a clear claim, sound and accurately cited legal sources, and Bluebook discipline. It is a weaker fit for empirical work that needs specialist peer review of its methods, for non-American legal material without an American framing, for student coursework from non-members, and for authors bound by funder rules the traditional law-review model cannot meet. Timing is part of fit here in a way it is not elsewhere: a submission that lands inside the February or August windows, complete and correctly formatted, meets the board when it is building an issue, and that matters.

Similar Journals to Consider

Authors placing a generalist American law article typically weigh a band of comparable flagship reviews - regional and national law reviews of similar standing, the other University of Denver Sturm College of Law journals for subject-specific work (the Denver Journal of International Law and Policy for international material, and the university's Water Law Review and Transportation Law Journal within their fields), and, for Tenth Circuit material specifically, the law reviews of the circuit's other law schools. Each review's windows, expedite practice and current board differ; the Denver review's distinguishing marks in that company are its Tenth Circuit issue and survey, its symposium tradition, and its Forum's speed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the ISSNs of the Denver Law Review?
Index records for the current title list the print ISSN as 2469-6463 and the electronic ISSN as 2469-6471, with coverage from the 2015 renaming. The University of Denver repository page for the review lists ISSN 0883-9409, the identifier associated with the journal's long run under its earlier titles. Cite the identifier of the era you are citing.

Who publishes the review, and who edits it?
The University of Denver Sturm College of Law has been sole publisher since 1966. It is edited by the law school's students under an annually renewed editorial board headed by an editor-in-chief.

When was it founded, and under what names?
In 1923, as the Denver Bar Association Record; then Dicta (1928), Denver Law Center Journal (1968), Denver University Law Review (1985), and Denver Law Review from 2015.

How often does it appear, and what is in each issue?
Four issues a year: general-interest issues, a Tenth Circuit issue (Issue 2), and a symposium issue (Issue 4), plus the online Denver Law Review Forum for shorter, timely pieces and podcasts. Subscriptions are forty dollars per volume on the review's own page.

How do I submit, and how long does review take?
Through Scholastica, by email to law-lawrev@du.edu, or in hard copy to the Senior Articles Editor at the Sturm College of Law address published by the review. Solicitation for Issue 1 opens 1 February and for Issue 3 on 1 August; allow at least twenty days for review. Expedite requests must name the author, the offering journal and the answer date needed.

Who may submit articles?
Professors, practitioners, judges and law clerks. The review does not consider article submissions from students who are not its members; its student comments come from its own members.

What are its metrics?
SCImago reports an SJR of 0.167, an h-index of 22 and a Q3 position in Law under the current title, with coverage from 2015 in the records consulted. OpenAlex totals for its ISSNs could not be verified from a clean record and are not cited here.

Does it charge authors?
No submission or publication charge is described in the review's own materials consulted for this profile. It is a traditional subscription-supported law review, not a fee-based open-access journal, and it is not listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals in the ISSN check made for this profile.

Sources and Verification

This profile rests on the review's own site at denverlawrev.org (submissions routes, calendar, review timing, expedite requirements, Tenth Circuit proposals, subscription terms and issue structure), on the University of Denver's Digital Commons pages (flagship description, distinguished authors, Forum description and the ISSN shown there), on the journal's documented publication history as summarised from the review's own about material (founding, successive titles, co-publication and sole-publication dates, issue pattern, survey and symposium traditions), on SCImago summary records under the current title and ISSNs (SJR, h-index, quartile, coverage), and on ISSN-keyed checks of the Directory of Open Access Journals and OpenAlex, whose limits are stated where they affect a claim. The stored record's publisher value in the Journals World template was a numeric code; the actual publisher, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, is the one given here. Figures that could not be verified from those sources are described as not published or could not be verified rather than being reproduced from unofficial listings.