About This Journal

Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality was founded in 1981 under the direction of Professor Catharine MacKinnon as the law school’s second legal journal. The editors sought to provide a forum for the development of legal scholarship and pedagogy that analyzes how the law perpetuates systemic oppression, exploitation, and discrimination.

The following is an excerpt from the Introduction of the Journal’s first Issue:

In the spring of 1982, the newly selected board of editors of the University of Minnesota’s “second journal” met to decide what course the new publication would take. After much discussion and some controversy, we decided on the journal’s focus: law and inequality. We felt that existing legal literature did not sufficiently examine problems of inequality, and we felt that a journal with this subject focus would provide valuable service to both the legal and non-legal communities.

In our view, inequality could not adequately be addressed within the confines of existing legal doctrine, nor fully analyzed in traditional legal journal format. With that in mind, we decided to use a broad based theoretical and practical approach to inequality as it exists in law and society, in an effort to achieve a more balanced and comprehensive analysis.

Editors, Introduction, 1 Law & Ineq. 1, v (1983).

Law & Inequality currently publishes articles by lawyers, law students, and non-lawyers, such as academics and community organizers, in order to provide the intellectual insight and practical depth necessary for a true understanding of inequality. Some notable authors of articles in Law & Inequality include Catharine MacKinnon, Richard Delgado, Cass Sunstein, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Derrick Bell, Jo Freeman, William J. Brennan, Jr., Peter Edelman, and Trina Jones.

Law & Inequality has also been cited numerous times by federal and state courts, including:

Notable Supreme Court case: United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515, 555-56 n.20 (1996).
State v. Janes, 822 P.2d 1238, 1242-43 (Wash. Ct. App. 1992).
Sayers by Sayers v. Beltrami County, 472 N.W.2d 656, 666 (Minn. Ct. App. 1991).
Isabellita S. v. John S, 504 N.Y.S.2d 367, 370 n.1 (N.Y. Fam. Ct. 1986).
Rio v. Rio, 504 N.Y.S.2d 959, 961 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1986).
Eastman v. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 939 F.2d 204, 208 n.5 (4th Cir. 1991).

The Journal is consistently recognized for its scholarly impact and holds the following rankings in the 2017 Washington and Lee University law journal rankings:

#1 in “Immigration Law”
#3 in “Family Law”
#3 in "Civil Rights"
#6 in "Minority, Race, and Ethnic Issues"
#7 in "Criminal Law and Procedure"
#10 in "Gender, Women, and Sexuality"
#24 in “Public Policy, Politics, and the Law”

Each volume of the Journal is comprised of two issues: Winter and Summer. Articles focus on race, poverty, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, and other unique issues of inequality. Journal articles can be social, empirical, doctrinal, experiential, literary, or community-based.

Address communication to:

Law and Inequality
University of Minnesota Law School
229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-625-5807
Fax: 612-624-5400
Business office: 612-625-6581
Email: lawineqj@umn.edu