Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository

Founded in 1967, the Cornell International Law Journal (ILJ) is one of the oldest and most prominent international law journals in the United States. Three times a year, the Journal publishes scholarship that reflects the sweeping changes that are taking place in public and private international law. Each issue features articles by legal scholars, practitioners, and participants in international politics, as well as student-written notes.

Law students perform all editorial functions for the Journal. The Editorial Board selects articles and notes for publication, communicates with the authors, edits manuscripts for substance and style, and manages the Journal’s financial and administrative affairs. Journal associates are the driving force behind the Journal and complete many sourcing, editing, and proving assignments, in addition to writing substantially publishable Student Notes on international law. Members are selected based on academic performance and writing ability.

History of the Journal

In 1967, the Cornell Society of International Law established the Cornell International Law Journal as a forum for the exploration of international legal scholarship. The Journal began production with a team of three editors and four associates. Professor Robert A. Anthony, later director of the U.S. Office of Foreign Direct Investments in the Department of Commerce and then Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States under President Ford, served as the Journal's first faculty advisor. Professor Paul C. Szasz '56, former Deputy to the United Nations Legal Counsel and principal drafter of the constitutions of Namibia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, contributed the first article. Of the more than eighty student-published international and comparative law journals across the country today, only five have a longer international heritage.

The Journal grew steadily over the years. In 1970, the Journal began semi-annual publication. In 1977, the Journal held its first Symposium – An International Comparison of Legal Services for the Poor. Since 1988, the Journal has been one of the few specialty journals to produce three issues a year. The Journal has published articles by eminent scholars such as E. Allan Farnsworth, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., Rudolf B. Schlesinger, and Roger C. Cramton, among others. The Journal has also been a forum for national and international public servants. Recent contributors include: John F. Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts and longstanding member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Senator George J. Mitchell, moderator of the historic Good Friday Accords in Northern Ireland and 1998 Nobel Peace Prize nominee; Senator Orrin G. Hatch, former Presidential candidate and ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Ambassador David J. Scheffer, Clinton negotiator for the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; the Right and Honorable Lord Gordon Slynn of the United Kingdom's High Court of Justice; and Major General Barry Ashton, Deputy Commander of United Nations forces in Croatia from 1993 to 1994.

Today, still edited exclusively by students in Cornell Law School's Juris Doctor and LL.M. programs, the Cornell International Law Journal continues to maintain its dedication to accurate, on-time publishing, and editorial integrity and strives to remain a vital forum where students, practitioners and scholars can continue to air their views and the fruits of their research in problems of international law.