About This Journal
First published in 1985, the University of Chicago Legal Forum is the Law School’s second-oldest journal. The Legal Forum is a student-edited journal that focuses on a single cutting-edge legal issue every year, presenting an authoritative and timely approach to a particular topic.
This year, scholars will come together around the topic, "Policing the Police." Seminal developments in case law, the militarization of police, and widely covered police killings make this an important time for evaluating police discretion and the challenges embedded in several interconnected systems. People from all sides of the discussion are willing to talk about reform. Volume 2016 will explore unsettled questions in the area of criminal law with a particular emphasis on the shift from looking at criminals as the sole problem and evaluating the systems that purport to be the solution. The Volume will examine a wide variety of issues, such as police compliance with the law and Miranda Rights; police use of force and deadly force; prosecutorial discretion and special grand jury procedures; civil remedies; and recent topics like body cameras, civil oversight, and police unions. The discussions and papers are a starting point for important conversations that will continue long after publication as the country seeks to reform the broken systems.
Since our founding, several eminent members of academia, the judiciary, and the bar have participated in the Legal Forum symposia. Prior participants and published authors include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Judge Richard Posner, Judge Frank Easterbrook, Judge Diane Wood, Judge Abner Mikva, Judge Patricia Wald, Judge Danny Boggs, Dean Lee Bollinger, Professor Randall Kennedy, Professor Cass Sunstein, Professor Lani Guinier, Professor Richard Epstein, and Professor Akhil Reed Amar.