The Canadian Journal of Family Law's purpose is to create an interdisciplinarian journal that publishes academic articles on a broad range of family law issues. Moreover, the Journal is national in its scope and has published articles in both English and French. The Journal also offers the opportunity to read papers presented at regional conferences on family law.

In the first year at UBC, Professor MacDougall and a group of law students, including James Fraser, Juliet Balfour, and Carmel Wiseman, concentrated their efforts on the publication of the next volume of the Journal, and with building up the editorial board.

The goal was to have the Journal become student run. In the early years, Professor MacDougall dedicated a lot of time to the establishment of this goal. Gradually, student editors took over the operation of the Canadian Journal of Family Law, and it remains a student publication to the present day. The aim of the Journal was to publish two issues per year and with only occasional delays in publication, the Journal has continued with this program.

The Journal of Law and Family Studies (JLFS) is an interdisciplinary journal addressing a broad range of empirical and doctrinal topics concerning families, family relationships, and the law. JLFS explores issues in family and juvenile law as well as other family-related issues relevant to public policy. JLFS is published at least twice a year, and membership is determined by a summer writing competition.