History

Sixty years ago, under the guidance of the late Professor Wolfgang Friedmann, a group of Columbia law students belonging to the Columbia Society of International Law founded the Bulletin of the Columbia Society of International Law. The Bulletin’s first volume, published in 1961, contained two issues and was a forum for the informal discussion of international legal questions. The second volume, published in 1963 as the International Law Bulletin, aspired more to the tradition of the scholarly law review. Today’s Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (CJTL) is heir to those early efforts.

By the end of its first decade, CJTL had established itself among the leading international legal periodicals. Professor Friedmann assisted CJTL in countless ways during those early years. CJTL’s Tenth Anniversary Issue was dedicated to Professor Friedmann “for his invaluable friendship, inspiration, and counsel,” and the CJTL editors affectionately called him the “spiritual guide and financial guardian” of the journal. Professor Friedmann’s tragic death in 1972 was a loss felt deeply by the international legal community and particularly keenly by the CJTL community.

During its second decade, CJTL expanded publication to three issues per year, experimented with theme issues, and published some of the early proceedings of the Friedmann Conference held annually at Columbia Law School. By the beginning of its third decade, CJTL’s theme issues—entire issues dedicated to the examination of current international law problems—had become regular annual publications. The theme issues have examined international taxation, international trade embargoes and boycotts, China’s legal development, sovereign debt rescheduling, socialist law, and international satellite communications.

Alumni of past editorial boards should take pride in its achievements of the last six decades. With the support of our Board of Directors and the advice of our Board of Advisors, CJTL has earned a place among the world’s major international legal periodicals. CJTL has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous federal appellate and trials courts. Journal articles and notes are frequently listed as suggested reading in casebooks and law review articles on topics of transnational law.

CJTL’s readership has grown dramatically over the years. Today, subscribers in more than sixty countries receive the Journal. Subscribers include the large university libraries in the United States and abroad, major international law firms, many foreign governments—including their agencies and embassies—and many organizations affiliated with the United Nations.