The ACLR was first published in 1962 by the University of Southern California Law School in conjunction with the American Bar Association. The ABA moved the publication to the University of Kansas Law School the following year and changed its title to the American Criminal Law Quarterly ("ACLQ"). As an ABA publication, the ACLQ concentrated on a practitioner's approach to the criminal law. In 1971
, Professor Sam Dash was elected chairman of the ABA's Criminal Law Section and moved from the University of Kansas to Georgetown. He brought the journal with him and changed its name to the American Criminal Law Review. Now edited by students, each issue originally dealt with a single topic. Volume 10, Number 1, the first issue published at Georgetown and under the ACLR name, presented a symposium on military law and began with an essay by the Army Chief of Staff at the time, Gen. That format lasted for only three academic years. Volume 13, publishied in 1975-76, adopted the mix of symposia, articles, and notes that remains the staple of the journal today. In the fall of 1980, the First Survey of White Collar Crime appeared in Volume 18, Number 2. It has evolved into the ACLR's best-known publication. Informally known as the Annual Survey, it now stands as the definitive reference work in its field. The final stage of the ACLR's evolution came in 1986 when the journal severed its ties with the ABA and became an independent scholarly review. Today, the ACLR is published independently by the Georgetown University Law Center and is edited solely by students. Over the years, our contributors have included some of the most prominent figures in American government, academia, and legal practice, including Sen. Akhil Amar, and then-Judge Stephen Breyer.
