It was established in 1901 by Joseph E. Corrigan and John M. Woolsey, who served as the review's first editor-in-chief and secretary.

[5] The second journal, the Columbia Law Times was founded in 1887 and closed down in 1893 due to lack of revenue.

[8] In June 2024, the journal published an article by Rabea Eghbariah, a Palestinian human rights lawyer, titled "Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept", which criticizes the "brutally sophisticated regime of oppression" of Palestinians "[a]cross Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and refugee camps" by the Israeli government.

The article aims at creating an international legal framework for the Nakba similar to genocide and apartheid.

Later that day, the Review's student editors published the article on a publicly accessible web site, as a free PDF file.