FAQ / Frequently Asked Questions

What is JURIST?

JURIST is a non-profit news organization that highlights rule-of-law issues around the globe and empowers tomorrow’s legal leaders.

At JURIST, we harness the collective power of law students worldwide to serve a dual purpose:

  • to inform the global community about critical rule of law issues in clear, accessible language; and
  • to cultivate a generation of service-oriented legal professionals dedicated to shaping a more just world.

Through our non-commercial, independent platform, we engage over 100 law student reporters, editors, and contributors spanning 25 countries, delivering timely and comprehensive coverage of legal developments without barriers to access. Upholding the principles of objectivity and editorial neutrality, we prioritize accuracy and fairness in our reporting, ensuring that our audience receives primary resources and nuanced expert opinions to help them form their own informed opinions. In the process, we endeavor to equip bright young legal minds with the knowledge and skills to become agents of positive change, bridging borders and ideologies to promote transparency, accountability, and justice for all.

We are committed to education, empowerment, and the pursuit of a fairer society for generations to come.

What does JURIST offer?

JURIST’s basic content services are:

News: Our news team focuses on reporting the facts in a manner that is timely, with an emphasis on sharing primary documents in plain language.

Dispatches: Our dispatches are written by field correspondents around the globe, and aim to provide information supplemented with local color and voices with respect to recent rule-of-law related developments.

Commentary: We feature commentaries by a broad range of scholars, students, and professionals with unique perspectives and expertise in rule-of-law related fields.

Explainers: We delve into complex legal issues in plain language, providing primary resources and additional research materials for those looking to dive deeper into the most relevant rule-of-law issues of the day.

Interviews: We conduct interviews with legal scholars, leading professionals, and experts to elucidate rule-of-law issues worldwide.

Features: Our features team goes in-depth into core legal developments to provide comprehensive analyses and explorations of pivotal issues.

Does JURIST have an editorial slant?

Today, it is more important than ever to avoid bias. The world is engulfed in conflict, political division, challenges to the international rules-based order, and all manner of violations of the rule of law. JURIST’s mission is to shed light on these issues. While our various services do that in a variety of ways, our flagship news service strives to add value to the public discourse by providing information and primary resources to our readers so they can develop their own informed opinions based on the latest and most comprehensive available evidence.

Does JURIST welcome news tips?
Certainly! If you think there’s a legal development we should know about or should be covering, email us at  jurist@jurist.org. We also welcome primary source documents related to stories in current legal news. Feel free to send us decisions, reports, press releases, etc. that you think might interest our readers in the US or and abroad.
JURIST’s website draws over 1.5 million users yearly from virtually every country and Internet domain in the world. Our largest Web audiences are in the US and India. JURIST has over eleven thousand Twitter followers and sends its daily email digest to nearly four thousand subscribers.
Can I contribute to JURIST?
We welcome content from legal scholars, policymakers, other legal professionals, rights advocates, and students with meaningful and deeply-informed insights into rule-of-law issues. If you would like to submit a pitch, please contact us at jurist@jurist.org. All of JURIST’s news content is written by its in-house law student staff.
As a non-profit organization dedicated to impactful journalism, we do not accept sponsored content.
How did JURIST get started?

University of Pittsburgh law professor Bernard Hibbitts and a law student assistant created the website that would become JURIST in 1996, as Law Professors on the Web. The name JURIST was officially adopted in 1997. It was initially designed for law professors as a clearinghouse of online legal materials authored by other law professors. Under the pressure of high-profile national and international events in the late 1990s and early 2000s that created online demand for authoritative legal information and documentation, JURIST rapidly evolved beyond its original directory-library-archive model and its internal academic orientation into a dynamic and externally-oriented news and research service designed to bridge the knowledge gap between the legal academy and the public.

Has JURIST been recognized for what it does?

JURIST has won multiple awards and distinctions over the years from legal and media institutions ranging from the American Bar Association Journal to the International Academy of the Visual Arts that runs the W3 digital excellence competition. In 2006, JURIST won the Webby People’s Voice Award and has been recognized in subsequent rounds of the Webbys, what the New York Times has called “the Internet’s highest honor,” for excellence in the presentation and delivery of online content. Over the years JURIST has been hailed for its coverage and commentary in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other traditional media in the US and abroad. JURIST content is regularly cited in law reviews and has been cited in Congressional testimony and amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court.

How is JURIST funded?
JURIST is supported by funds provided by the University of Pittsburgh and a variety of charitable donors, as well as by generous in-kind technical support from Justia.To learn more about how you can support JURIST, its mission and its students, click here. To donate to JURIST directly, click here.
How can I join JURIST?
Law students join JURIST for a broad range of reasons, such as:
    • to gain experience in the online-oriented legal research and writing techniques they need to develop for 21st-century careers;
    • to hone their ability to effectively find and evaluate information online;
    • to keep up with ongoing national and legal developments that they may not be exposed to in their classes;
    • to serve the informational and educational needs of the public, pro bono;
    • to have fun and make connections working with JURIST staff from other law schools across the US and around the world!
JURIST recruits law students from around the world on a rolling basis, although most US recruitment takes place twice a year (in August and January). Watch for announcements on JURIST and our social media platforms at those times. If you’d like to join JURIST at some other time, please apply directly at http://jurist.org/apply.