Cumberland Law Review
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The Cumberland Law Review[1] was founded in 1970 at Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama. The Law Review publishes three issues a year. Each issue averages between 150 and 200 pages. The Law Review maintains a working relationship with Cumberland Law School's Center for Biotechnology, Law and Ethics and has partnered to both co-sponsor and publish papers related to the Center's annual Symposium.
[edit] Membership
Members are selected by write-on and bluebook examination from the top 15% of the freshman class. The process for selection is known as the Candidates Program. The first phase is the bluebook examination. If the student achieves an acceptable score the student may then participate in the Candidates Writing Competition. The student must draft a casenote and submit it to the board for review. A student must successfully complete both phases to earn a membership on the Law Review.
Members perform cite checks, must attend mandatory meetings, and later draft a Comment of publishable quality.
[edit] Purpose
"The continuing objective of the Cumberland Law Review's membership is to publish a professional periodical devoted to legal and law-related issues that can be of use to judges, practitioners, teachers, legislators, students, and others interested in the law. Only in the legal profession do students have the responsibility for publishing a majority of the contributions to the professional literature.
One of our primary goals is accuracy in all respects--in propositions of law, points of grammar and usage, forms of citations, and, especially, well-reasoned analysis. To continue our contribution to the legal community, the Review must include pieces that cover a broad range of legal topics; that are timely, universal, or both; and that provide helpful, analytical tools for dealing with legal problems. Most importantly, the pieces printed by the Review should be analytically creative. Rather than simply discussing legal developments, the Review's pieces should criticize, challenge, and attempt to influence the law.
The Review publishes three issues a year, with individual issues averaging between 150 and 200 pages. As may be seen from a quick look through any of its volumes, each issue of the Review consists of any combination of tributes, articles, essays, notes, and comments. Generally, an issue includes at least one article, note and comment.
Occasionally, part or all of an entire issue is devoted to a single legal problem or to a series of related legal issues. In 2002-03, for instance, the Review published a symposium on Bioethics and the Law, which was hosted by the Review and Children's Hospital in Birmingham. Additionally, in 2003, the Review published its first special edition, a compilation of position papers from the Alabama Constitutional Committee."[2]
