About NLJR

Illustration by Caroline Radell

The Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés (NLJR) challenges the bounds of legal academia to promote accessible and interdisciplinary studies. As the only legal journal of its kind, NLJR is an intellectually diverse mixed-media publication that features art, poetry, and other expressive mediums alongside traditional forms of legal scholarship.

Inspired by the Paris Salon des Refusés (1863), which established a forum for experimental artists to display their art directly to the public, NLJR is a student-operated law journal, founded on the mission of uplifting nontraditional voices and embracing the legal avant-garde. With an eye towards intersectional academic inquiry and thought diversity in all forms, NLJR seeks to engage with a wide breadth of disciplines to capture the authentic relationship between the letter of the law and its governance in practice. Understanding that the law touches every facet of society, we hope to make legal academia approachable beyond traditional legal scholars to the general public.

We publish one print issue of legal scholarship each Spring, as well as online articles throughout the year. We are actively seeking articles that can be meaningfully engaged with by the general public, whether on their face or with the help of practical guidance that will be published in each issue.