  We present a formulation of domain-wall fermions in the Schr\"odinger
functional by following a universality argument. To examine the formulation, we
numerically investigate the spectrum of the free operator and perform a
one-loop analysis to confirm universality and renormalizability. We also study
the breaking of the Ginsparg-Wilson relation to understand the structure of
chiral symmetry breaking from two sources: The bulk and boundary. Furthermore,
we discuss the lattice artifacts of the step scaling function by comparing with
other fermion discretizations.
