Scholarly journals are a cornerstone of legal education, connecting students to the ideas, debates, and research that shape the legal profession. While many law schools center their academic publishing around just one or two traditional publications, the University of Miami School of Law takes a different approach. Miami Law hosts a rich ecosystem of student-edited journals spanning international and inter-American law, business law, social justice, and general legal scholarship. Together, this diverse portfolio reflects Miami Law's identity and helps define the student experience.
Five journals offer personalized path to legal expertise
A broad array of journals allows students to pursue their interests without fitting them into a single mold. Instead, they are empowered to find an academic home aligned directly with their personal values and career ambitions. The publications include the Business Law Review, Inter-American Law Review, International and Comparative Law Review, Race and Social Justice Law Review, and the University of Miami Law Review.
Farah Barquero, director of Law Reviews and Moot Court Programs, highlights how this structure fundamentally transforms a student’s trajectory.
"Our publications demonstrate that Miami Law does not approach legal education from a single perspective,” Barquero explains. “Instead, our journals create space for students and faculty to examine law through multiple disciplines, communities, and areas of practice, mirroring the diversity of the legal profession and the communities our graduates will serve."
Barquero notes that this variety encourages intellectual diversity by preventing students from being confined to one rigid discipline. "It creates opportunities for students to develop specialized expertise, strengthen legal research and writing skills, collaborate with peers and faculty, and build professional networks within their chosen fields.”
For students, that personalization translates directly into professional clarity. Ana Garcia-Velez, editor-in-chief of the University of Miami International & Comparative Law Review (ICLR), shares how specialized publishing helped clarify her professional path.
"I chose to join the journal because of my longstanding interest in international legal work. My experiences as both a junior staff editor and now as editor-in-chief have solidified my interest in international practice and exposed me to new areas of the legal field,” she says. “What makes our work particularly vibrant is the breadth of topics we cover—publishing works focusing on topics ranging from international arbitration, human rights, constitutional law, and much more."
Similarly, Juliana Gorina, editor-in-chief of the Race and Social Justice Law Review (RSJLR), which in 2026 celebrated its 15th anniversary, was drawn to her journal’s unique intersectional focus.
"Many of my extracurricular experiences at Miami Law have been related to public interest work,” says Gorina. “This drew me to RSJLR. But beyond that, RSJLR is such a fantastic journal because so many different areas of law are impacted by race and social justice. Our scholarship has included pieces on evidence, geofence warrants, health law, gerrymandering, and qualified immunity. RSJLR allows editors to write about topics that interest them but pushes them to find deeper gaps in the law."
Rigor beyond the classroom
While classes teach legal principles, law review participation turns students into active contributors to legal scholarship.
Lorena Manasturean, editor-in-chief of the University of Miami Law Review (UMLR), which published its 80th volume this year, emphasizes that the editorial process is far more than proofreading—it is an active exercise in legal analysis.
"Editing legal scholarship involves a significant amount of legal research savviness—it is not a rote, monotone activity," Manasturean explains. "When a citation is verified in the editing cycle, our editors test the validity of an author’s argument. Editors ask themselves: is this sentence logically supported by the proposed citation? In that way, editors engage in a constant, although one-sided, debate with the author. By the time students are ready to write their own student notes, they’ve strengthened their own legal research and logical reasoning skills."
Garcia-Velez points out how early hands-on responsibility builds confidence.
"From the very beginning of their time with the journal, junior staff editors are assigned substantive and essential tasks within the editing cycle; these responsibilities instill in them a strong command of legal writing and citation practices, and, perhaps more importantly, empowers them to take ownership in their writings," Garcia-Velez says.
Reflecting Miami Law’s identity and values
Miami Law's journals reflect the diversity of today's legal profession. Positioned at a critical global intersection, the school uses its journals to engage with complex, emerging questions that cross traditional boundaries.
That real-world reach is evident across all of the school's journals. Manasturean highlights how student contributions in Caveat—UMLR’s digital companion—can spark broader legal discourse.
"In Caveat’s Fall edition, we're publishing an article by an attorney who was inspired by a junior staff editor’s blog post on the UMLR website," says Manasturean. "The junior staff editor was not only able to contribute to a timely topic in the legal field, but her work served as the starting point for another contribution to the conversation. The legal scholarship we publish is not limited to the pages of our volumes but has a real-world impact on legal academics and practitioners alike."
Frederick O'Donnell, editor-in-chief of the Inter-American Law Review, points to how specialized journals bring attention to critical global issues that might otherwise be overlooked.
"One piece I'd point to is our recent article on censorship and the suppression of freedom of expression in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela,” he said. “It's exactly the kind of scholarship that doesn't get sustained attention in most journals, but that matters enormously to people living under those regimes."
For Barquero, the ultimate value of these journals lies in how they shape both the institution and the students who lead them.
“Our publications show that Miami Law values excellence without sacrificing diverse perspectives,” says Barquero. “They demonstrate a commitment to providing students with the tools, platforms, and communities necessary to develop their own scholarly voices while contributing to the broader legal profession. The journals are a visible expression of who Miami Law is, what it values, and the kind of leaders it seeks to develop."
Read more about the School of Law’s law reviews.
