University of Notre Dame

Diversity

The Notre Dame Law Review is committed to diversity. To us, diversity means an array of values, experiences, and viewpoints arising from difference in professional experience, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, academic institutions, and much more. We strive for diversity in both our membership and scholarship.

A diverse membership is essential to maintaining our tradition of excellence. Engaging with different viewpoints and life experiences enhances the way we understand ourselves, our world, and the law. Fostering a diverse membership allows each member of the Law Review to learn more; it prepares us to be better lawyers and better people. To promote a diverse membership, we will coordinate with student organizations to host events promoting diversity and encouraging students to participate in and complete the write-on competition.

The Notre Dame Law Review plays a vital role in determining what legal scholarship is published.  This role carries with it a great deal of responsibility.  The legal field depends on the open exchange of ideas.  We welcome articles that express diverse or new perspectives and encourage authors who are traditionally underrepresented in this field to submit work. We will consider all submissions equally.

To realize the abovementioned values, we maintain a Diversity Committee that undertakes the following diversity initiatives:

  • Create diversity-related policies and goals;
  • Collect and assess demographic information for write-on participants;
  • Establish a way to educate the article selection team on the importance of diverse viewpoints in legal scholarship;

The Notre Dame Law Review’s efforts to implement our values are continuously reassessed.  We hope to develop and implement more initiatives to improve the diversity and inclusion of our membership and scholarship.