미국 형사법 학술지의 현황과 역할

In the United States, usually law journals and law reviews are not published and managed by any law society or law association. Rather the main body of management tends to be a law school while the publisher could be a famous publishing company specialized in law subjects. At the same time, although there are hundreds of criminal law journals and law reviews focusing on specific criminal law/criminal procedure issues, most of them are not being considered as top law journals or law reviews, because the usual fields of law journals ranges from any public law matters to private law matters. The topics from criminal law matters to criminal procedure ones are not particularly popular subjects that may attract many prominent readers. However there is a certain list categorizing the most influential criminal law/criminal procedure journals and reviews and the main characteristics are not changed when it comes to specialized law journals and reviews. Firstly, law school students' participation in terms of editing and blue-booking the articles are essential. Throughout the process of editing hundreds law journal articles, they are able to build up necessary skills and insights to deal with any legal matters. Secondly, peer review by colleagues has become another requirement to make the articles more appealing. From those characteristics we may draw some lessons that we are able to apply to our current status of law journals and law reviews in Korea.