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Policies

Contents

Philosophy of City University of New York Law Review

For more information, please see City University of New York Law Review Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

The City University of New York Law Review ("CUNYLR") publishes: Executive Articles, Notes & Comments, and the Public Interest Practitioner Section (PIPS). The Executive Articles section is where authors can submit long, traditional law review pieces, the Notes & Comments portion is typically reserved for student publications, and the PIPS section is designated for practitioners and attorney pieces..

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General Submission Rules

CUNYLR, a publication committed to promoting social justice scholarship, welcomes submissions related to our social justice mission. Our journal is affiliated with the City University of New York School of Law, one of the most diverse law schools in the nation and one of the few entirely dedicated to producing public interest lawyers. In addition to publishing articles by legal scholars, we have a special section in each journal dedicated to public interest articles written by practitioners.

In accepting articles, we seek to continue the journal’s tradition of advancing legal scholarship highlighting the touchstones of our publication’s work—including civil rights, progressive legal reform, the impact of the law on marginalized communities, international human rights, and attorney insights on law and organizing. In addition, we are interested in reflections analyzing how recent developments in the law have affected public interest practices in New York and beyond.

We look forward to reading and discussing your manuscript for possible publication, and kindly invite you to forward this letter to other social justice scholars and practitioners who may be interested in publishing with us. Submissions can be sent to us either through Scholastica or Gmail (lawreviewcuny@gmail.com)

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Executive Articles

Standard law review articles with a public interest focus. Suggested length: 15,000-20,000 words, 200-400 footnotes. In addition to your manuscript, please include the following: your CV or resume, your contact information, and a cover letter concisely summarizing your article’s argument and contribution to our public interest mission.

Notes and Comments

Student scholarship that takes risks and reflects our public interest mission. Suggested length: 7,500-15,000 words, 150-300 footnotes. We particularly welcome work that reflects the needs of our larger New York City community.

Public Interest Practitioner Section (PIPS)

Law review articles researched and written by practitioners on problems of interest in their fields; suggested length: 12,500-20,000 words, 180-400 footnotes. The PIPS section editors invite submissions from practitioners who are dedicated to working with underrepresented communities. PIPS articles are distinguished by their flexibility, reflected in their emphasis on author voice and narrative, and their lower word and footnote counts. The PIPS section is meant to provide a space for practitioners to share their thoughts and strategies with other public interest practitioners and the legal community at large.

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Formatting Requirements

City University of New York Law Review requires citations conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (20th ed.) and appear as footnotes rather than endnotes.

Additionally, there are rules governing the formatting of the final submission. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. Although bepress can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file, or a Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or RTF file that can be converted to a PDF file.

It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

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Rights for Authors and CUNY Academic Works

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to CUNY Academic Works all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal--use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of CUNY Academic Works, requires credit to CUNY Academic Works as copyright holder (e.g., CUNY Academic Works © 2026).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from CUNY Academic Works provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the CUNY Academic Works website and/or software agree not to misuse the CUNY Academic Works service or software in any way.

The failure of CUNY Academic Works to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between CUNY Academic Works and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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