Melbourne University Law Review

The first periodical published at the Melbourne Law School was The Summons. It appeared with the subtitle A Magazine of Legal and General Literature and was published by the Articled Law Clerks' Society of Victoria between 1891 and 1903. It was a yellow-covered sixteen-page journal depicting an angel with a trumpet on its cover and served as more of a current affairs magazine than an academic journal, publishing reports of moots and discussing topical issues, which at the time included the fusion of the two branches of the Victorian legal profession and the admission of women.

In 1935, the students of the Faculty of Law established Res Judicatae — roughly translated as "things that have been judicially adjudicated on" — which was intended to provide a forum for discussion and debate among students of the law. Published by the Law Students' Society of Victoria, it focused on legal journalism.

Notable publications include C S Lewis on 'The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment',[3] Owen Dixon on 'De Facto Officers',[4] H V Evatt on 'Amending the Constitution',[5] John Latham on 'The Law Student',[6] and the re-printing of Frank Gavan Duffy's poem, 'A Dream of Fair Judges' (originally published in The Summons).[7]

In 1957, Zelman Cowen (then dean of the faculty and later governor-general of Australia) re-established the journal along the model of the Harvard Law Review and renamed it the Melbourne University Law Review. In line with prevailing American practice, top ranking law students were invited to become members of the editorial board. In 1998, the number of issues published each year was increased from two to three.