Whether you’re studying law or currently established in the legal profession, staying current with legal issues is a must. One way to stay current involves subscribing to law journals. Below, we’ve outlined a collection of free law journals from well respected sources. After all, staying current doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune!
Duke Law
Duke University School of Law offers issues of its journal online for free. You can download and print issues without incurring any charges as well as read articles online for free. If you prefer professional, printed copies, the yearly subscription rate is $44 for U.S. deliveries. To read current or archived articles online, you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader as all issues and articles are offered in the PDF format.
Expect in-depth articles with each issue. For example, the March 2010 issue features a 68-page analysis of antitrust law and boycotts titled, Antitrust Censorship of Economic Protests by Hillary Greene.
In addition to the journal, the Duke Law Journal is part of a larger legal community. Be sure to check the “Legal Workshop” which features op-ed versions of articles posted by other law journals participating in this unique judicial symposium. Articles posted here are thought provoking but not nearly as long as journal articles.
Web Journal of Current Legal Issues
Based in the UK, the Web Journal of Current Legal Issues is published five times per year by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. It focuses on current legal issues in judicial decisions, legislation, law reform, policy related socio-legal research, legal research, legal information, information technology, and practice. Each issue typically contains several in-depth articles and book reviews.
Issues are posted online where you can read them directly. In addition, PDF versions are available for download. In order to download an article or book review, you’ll need to first go to the site’s index and select the issue containing the journal article that you’d like to save. Once selected, you’ll then click on download where you can then choose the file to download.