German Law Journal Tops Ranking of International and European Law Journals The pioneering online and open-access journal sees its impact in recent top ranking from Google Scholar.

By Law Communications
February 14, 2024

The German Law Journal at Washington and Lee University School of Law is a pioneering, online and open-access journal reporting on developments in German, European, and International jurisprudence. Now in its third decade publishing, the German Law Journal (GLJ) is one of the most successful and innovative fora for legal scholarship from a transnational perspective.

Currently, the Journal is ranked number one in the world by Google Scholar in the categories of International Law and European Law. Further evidence of its impact comes from the W&L Law Library’s journal rankings system, which places the GLJ at the top of list of journals focused on European Law.

Russell Miller, J.B. Stombock Professor of Law, co-founded the GLJ more than 20 years ago as one of the first open-access, fully-online forums for legal scholarship. During much of that time span, W&L Law students have assisted with the editing and administration of the Journal. Miller credits this student engagement with helping the GLJ become a top platform for international legal scholarship.

“The students do impressive and highly professional work managing the publication and editing the content for language, style, and substance,” said Miller. “That’s an especially noteworthy role because the GLJ publishes scholarship on issues not deeply covered by the typical American law school curriculum. In that way, the students are pushed substantively, but their work with scholars from around the world also challenges them to develop the skills needed to work effectively across linguistic or cultural differences, skills that will be of great benefit in their legal practice, regardless of the focus.”

Maxwell Hanamirian ’19, ’24L is lead executive editor of the GLJ. He appreciates how his work on the journal has created a full-circle experience for his development as a lawyer.

“We touch many different areas when we review an article,” said Hanamirian. “And that really goes back to the roots of day one in Civil Procedure as a 1L, reviewing a case and looking out for certain facets to learn what the case is supposed to teach us. So I think at the end of the day, the Journal really enhances the law school experience because of how much focus goes into being detail oriented.”

Anika Maan ‘24L, managing editor of the GLJ, said working on the Journal has been a highlight of her legal education.

“As a journal this year, we’ve been juggling a higher number of publications, an office renovation, and ever-changing global issues,” said Maan. “We are at the forefront of international legal analysis, and being part of the team to bring us to #1 in the world has made my legal education just that much sweeter.”

Beyond their work on the Journal, the 46 students who comprise the journal’s staff also hosted a symposium this year titled “Sexual Violence and the Law,” based on a recently published special issue of the GLJ. In addition, six student editors will travel with Prof. Miller to Berlin in March for the Rule of Law Academy, a program that brings together law students from W&L, Germany, and around the world for an intensive, week-long seminar about foreign law and about urgent issues related to the Rule of Law. The program will feature visits to the German Federal Constitutional Court and the German Parliament.

“This program revives a long-standing seminar initiative that was suspended during the COVID pandemic but has created and fostered a professional network of German and American jurists now working in well-known law firms and as judges around the world,” said Miller.

Later this academic year, the GLJ will celebrate the student editors whose research papers have been selected for publication in the GLJ, which Miller said “represents an unparalleled chance for student work to appear in one of the world’s leading law journals.”