An Introduction to JLPP: Per Curiam – Eli Nachmany and Alexander Khan

Posted by harvardjlpp on Aug 31, 2021 in Per Curiam

An Introduction to JLPP: Per Curiam

Eli Nachmany, Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy

Alexander Khan, Director of JLPP: Per Curiam

Since 1978, the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy has been America’s law journal—the premier forum for conservative and libertarian legal scholarship. Three times a year, JLPP’s subscribers find that small, iconic, crimson book in their mailboxes, featuring essays from top legal scholars, commentators, and public officials. Copies of JLPP have made their way into law libraries, White House offices, Supreme Court chambers, and the halls of Congress.

But the nature of legal scholarship is changing. While JLPP has been able to meaningfully impact the conversation in various areas of law and public policy over the years, its current format focuses on the publication of scholarship that takes a longer view. The amount of time between our Journal’s acceptance of an article for publication and that article’s actual publication can be up to a year. This has allowed us to publish thoughtful and scholarly articles throughout our many years. Articles that have shaped legal thinking and, at times, the political landscape. What this means, however, is that we have missed out on shorter, more timely commentary.

So, today, we take the next step in JLPP’s history and launch JLPP: Per Curiam, an online counterpart to our print edition. The creation of Per Curiam will allow JLPP to participate in the day-to-day legal debates that animate much of our public discourse, providing a platform for conservative and libertarian content. It will enable JLPP to serve as a home for cutting edge commentary, reaction, opinion, and shorter scholarship. To be sure, we will continue to publish our print edition three times a year, showcasing the rigorous legal scholarship for which JLPP has come to be known. But now, with Per Curiam, JLPP adds a new dimension.

To launch Per Curiam, we are honored to present an online symposium celebrating Justice Thomas’s 30^th Anniversary on the Supreme Court of the United States. This symposium includes essays and video interviews with former clerks of Justice Thomas, many of whom are currently serving on the federal bench. Perhaps the best part is that multiple participants in today’s symposium were once JLPP editors, whether as students at Harvard Law School or as student editors from other law schools helping out with our yearly national symposium issue. While the symposium includes a significant amount of reflection on Justice Thomas’s impact on the law, it also highlights the kind of man he is, from the perspective of those who have had the great fortune of working for him as law clerks.

In addition to this set of essays and video interviews, we have some terrific content already planned for Per Curiam. But our inbox is open. We invite submissions from law professors, judges, practitioners, and law students on issues of law and public policy from a conservative or libertarian perspective. We anticipate that Per Curiam will keep JLPP at the heart of the legal conversation, and we look forward to making this the best year in JLPP’s history to date.