Interesting article in The Legal Times: Is the Future of Legal Scholarship in the Blogosphere?, by Margaret A. Schilt (Faculty Services Librarian, University of Chicago Law Library):
If you are looking for the future of legal scholarship, chances are that you may find it not in a treatise or the traditional law review but in a different form, profoundly influenced by the blogosphere.
What do these blogs look like? There’s a wide variety, from the weighty to the conversational or, in the jargon, the more "bloggy." On the Becker-Posner Blog, Judge Richard Posner and economist Gary Becker debate issues such as crime and economic development, health care reform and whether higher education is a good investment. Ann Althouse, professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, blogs (althouse.blogspot.com) in a more personal, less self-consciously scholarly mode, addressing subjects from Rudy Giuliani’s campaign to the auto show to Mother’s Day. (See "I Am in Love With Blogging.") Somewhere in the middle are blogs such as The Volokh Conspiracy, where Eugene Volokh fosters dialogue among 17 scholars on law and public issues, and the Law Professor Blogs, a collection of 50 different subject-related blogs, such as the ImmigrationProf Blog.
Who are the bloggers? The uninitiated might think they would be young professors, those who have grown up with the Internet and are comfortable with self-publication in that format. While there are some of those, the legal blogosphere tends to be populated by midcareer professors who have tenure, are intimately familiar with traditional legal scholarship and see the Internet as a way to reach more readers in a less ritualized format. Younger scholars, in contrast, debate whether blogging is worth the time taken away from traditional legal scholarship, still necessary for achieving tenure. …
Why, then, spend the time? One answer is that a blog reaches far more readers than traditional scholarship…. Immediate feedback is another reason. … There also may be a reputational bonus. …
Does blogging contribute to the scholarship, teaching and service asked of legal academics? It’s easy to see how blogging could contribute to the dissemination of knowledge. Can blogging also be a part of the process of discovering knowledge? If knowledge is discovered by the assertion and exploration of ideas, issues and opinions, through an iterative process of dialogue, critique and reformulation, blogging is making that contribution. The form may be different and the pace accelerated, but it still looks and feels like scholarly activity.
Blogging also readily lends itself to teaching; indeed, it can be viewed as the classroom listserv discussion at large. …
Can blogging be viewed as service? What is meant by "service," anyway? In days of yore (again), law professors fulfilled their service by writing a treatise describing the state of the law, cited by practitioners and judges. Professors also contributed to public discussion of legal issues by writing op-eds or speaking at bar association meetings.
In recent decades, the practicing bar has complained of a lack of service from the legal academy. Judge Harry Edwards, in a much-quoted speech in 1992, said, "Because too few law professors are producing articles or treatises that have direct utility for judges, administrators, legislators and practitioners, too many important social issues are resolved without the needed input from academic lawyers." He decried the "growing disjunction" between the academy and the practicing bar.
It seems to me that this is an area where blogs have real benefits to offer. Instead of scholars focusing inward, writing for and expecting to be read only by other academics, legal academics blog with the desire and the expectation that they will be read by the public. Law-related blogs such as the University of Chicago Faculty Blog bring the perspective of the academy to the attention of anyone interested in the issue under discussion, educating both sides of the dialogue. The Internet functions as a public square, where Main Street, Wall Street and the ivory tower meet.
Bloggers haven’t abandoned law review articles and other scholarship, but even there, blogging has its effect. Law reviews may be the tortoise to the blogging hare, secure in the prestige that tenure requirements confer on the traditional law review article, but they are not immune to the siren call for more casual prose, shorter paragraphs and fewer footnotes. No one thinks the law review article is going away, but it is undergoing its own more or less painful transformations.
Blogging contributes to the shortened life cycle of a theory or idea. … Even if blogging will never replace traditional legal scholarship, blogs are where the scholarly dialogue increasingly takes place.
(Hat Tip: Jim Maule.)
