The Stevens Law and Technology Journal (SJOLT) has recently released its second edition, marking another milestone for the publication founded by Nicholas Russo. Following his bachelor’s degree, Russo is completing a Master’s in Computer Science at Stevens and will soon attend Harvard Law School.
Russo observed a significant gap while conducting his own personal research: “While researching places to publish my own work on the intellectual foundations and history of computational law, I spent a lot of time studying the world of undergraduate law reviews,” Russo shared. “I realized that there did not seem to be a publication dedicated to undergraduate (and master’s student) scholarship at the intersection of law and technology.”
Russo noticed that sufficient work was being done through school-run journals devoted to both law and technology, but these are typically inaccessible to people with no formal legal education. His realization became the inspiration to create SJOLT in early 2025. According to SJOLT’s mission statement, the journal is “the first and only undergraduate-led academic publication dedicated to advancing scholarship at the intersection of law and technology.” There is a strong emphasis on the journal being centered on accessibility and collaboration. “My main goal for SJOLT has been to make scholarship in law and technology more accessible. I strongly believe that students do not need formal legal education to produce thoughtful, rigorous, and valuable work about legal questions,” Russo said. “To address that, I’ve developed a more collaborative editorial model in which editors can meet with prospective authors, help them brainstorm and refine ideas, and give them the confidence and structure needed to turn an initial interest into a serious piece of scholarship.”
Within the newest edition of SJOLT, there are articles exploring the topics of artificial intelligence governance, digital privacy, intellectual property, and more that explore the niches within the intersection of law and technology. Authors from a wide range of educational backgrounds and exposures are featured within the journal, and their incredibly original thinking is proudly published in this edition. Russo views SJOLT as a platform that not only benefits authors, but editors as well. “Authors gain an opportunity to publish substantive work, while editors gain experience evaluating scholarship, working closely with writers, and helping shape a scholarly publication,” he said. “Those experiences can become meaningful parts of students’ applications for jobs, internships, research positions, law school, and other graduate programs.”
With the second edition now published, SJOLT is still continuing to expand its reach and influence beyond Stevens. Russo’s idea is an inspiration that legal and technological scholarship inquiry can start before, or even without, law school.
