Law and Economics Journals: A Curated Directory
The economic analysis of law — a field with its own peer-reviewed journals alongside the student-edited reviews.
The Flagship Law and Economics Journals
Law and economics applies economic reasoning to legal rules and institutions. Unlike most US law reviews, several of the field's leading journals are faculty-edited and peer reviewed.
Foundational titles include the Journal of Legal Studies and the Journal of Law and Economics, both at the University of Chicago, and the peer-reviewed Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. The Yale Journal on Regulation also publishes heavily in the regulatory-economics space.
Directory (A–Z)
Journals in this field that appear in our verified directory, each linking to its official site:
Impact Factors and Rankings
Legal journals are ranked mainly by citation counts rather than the impact-factor system used in the sciences. The Washington & Lee Law Journal Rankings let you filter journals by subject — including law and economics — and sort by how often each is cited in other journals and in court opinions. Peer-reviewed journals in this field may also carry a traditional journal impact factor. We describe these methods and link to the source rather than reproducing ranked tables.
Where to Read Them Free
Most of these journals are free to read. Individual titles post issues on their own sites; older volumes are collected in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library, which many public and academic libraries provide at no charge to cardholders. Google Scholar and SSRN host a large share of the same scholarship for free.
Submitting Your Work
If you want to publish in this field, the process mirrors law-review submission generally: build a target list weighted toward law and economics journals, submit within the reading windows, and use expedite requests once you have an offer. Our how to get published in a law review guide walks through each step.
See every kind of legal periodical in our legal journals directory, or explore the Washington & Lee rankings.
We are not affiliated with any journal named here, and journal titles named without a link are identified for reference only. This is a research aid, not legal advice.