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22 responses to “Law Journals”

1. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   Eric Rasmusen

   Even in economics, an abstract is very much like legal pleadings. You’re telling your reader what you claim you will show, without giving him the evidence yet. The most important thing for students (and professors) to keep in mind is that, as with pleadings, it isn’t correct just to tell the reader the subject you’re going to talk about. No “In this article I discuss how concentration affects profits in Bulgaria,”; rather, “In this article I show that concentration and profits are positively correlated in Bulgaria.”

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2. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   Do law reviews really set their abstracts in all italics? Really? OUCH! That’s a great way to get readers to completely skip reading an abstract.

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3. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   If I am reading the introduction, I’ve already decided to read the article, though I suppose I could stop if the introduction convinces me I’ve made a mistake. Don’t most people actually read law review articles through Wexis? Is there even an introduction field?

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4. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   If you do end up recommending that abstracts be submitted with the article (assuming a sufficient number of law review editors find them helpful, either in screening the selections or in pitching articles within the editorial board), then I’d suggest that you include some explanation about how to include the abstract when you submit the piece. Should it be a freestanding document separate from the article and the cover letter? If it’s part of the article and comes after the title and just before the introduction, I’d worry that people would read it and make a judgment based solely on the abstract, before reading the introduction.

   Isn’t the introduction, not the abstract, the place where you really attempt to draw a new reader into reading the piece?

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5. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   Brian Mac

   As my old boss used to say, an abstract should cover four things:

   1) What did you do
   2) Why did you do it
   3) What were the results, and
   4) What do they mean

   I’ve found that works pretty well for the “sciences,” but I’m not so sure how applicable it is for law review articles.

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6. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   As a practitioner who sometimes uses law review articles, I don’t care whether it’s an introduction or an abstract, but I need something in the Westlaw/Lexis version of the article that tells me what the author saying. Usually, when I’m looking at law review articles, it’s be cause I’m researching first principles, and I need to know if this specific article will address whatever issue is in my case. All too often, the introduction or abstract just doesn’t help. I’m willing to wade through imperfect prose and bad organization to find helpful information, but I’d rather not. (My guess is that most judges and law clerks approach lawyers’ briefs the same way.)

   Maybe the abstract/introduction distinction is the best way to reach multiple audiences. If some readers want to slowly wade in, they can meander through the introduction. If they want a well-written practitioner-style summary, they can start with the abstract.

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7. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   I don’t have an initial gatekeeper role, so I don’t know how everything comes in. My sense is that abstracts are standard.

   We usually circulate the abstracts of all the submissions we are serious about to the entire acquisitions committee. So if I am trying to get support for an article I like and have read in full, I have to plan my pitch around the fact that everyone has seen the abstract. If the abstract is strong, my job pitching your article has become that much easier. The abstract should also give me some good talking points. If the abstract is weak or the gatekeeper had to write a summary for you, well, you get the picture.

   Maybe we are the only law review doing things this way. I doubt it.

   Italics don’t really matter, since we can easily change the fonts when we copy the abstract into a circular email on today’s hot submissions.

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8. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   Kent Scheidegger

   The odd thing is that the legal profession is so far behind all the others in putting abstracts on its articles.

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9. 

   International

   December 20, 2017

   This is great advice, mostly. Here are some comments from a non-lawyer professor.

   1. The abstract is distinct from the first paragraphs of the paper. The abstract describes for experts what the paper accomplishes, giving them a reason to read the paper. The beginning of the introduction gives the setting for the paper in its larger context, often for the benefit of people less expert. Full scale jargon is OK for the abstract, but not for the beginning of the introduction.

   2. Your first paragraph could benefit from some “Strunk&White”ing, particularly the … or … or … or part. You are trying to set an example of good writing.

   3. I particularly agree with your description of the inpatient reader. My time is limited. If I have trouble with an abstract, I will spend my time reading somebody else’s article.

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10. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    Orin Kerr

    I actually prefer a short one-paragraph summary for most abstracts over the slightly longer multi-paragraph version. (If it can be done — more true with some articles than others.)

    This is implicit in what you’re saying, but I can’t stress enough the importance of not just saying that the article “discusses”, “investigates,” or “analyzes” an issue: The abstract needs to include the key argument, finding, claim, etc. that follows from the discussion, investigation, and analysis.

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11. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    In the seven classes from ’00 to ’06, at least 29 UCLA law students published articles in other schools’ journals either the year they graduated. For example, a specialty journal from a number 20-something school would be equivalent to a number 70-something law review.

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12. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    Law review article authors routinely thank lots of people in their thank-you notes. Generally the introductory footnote that also mentions the author’s. If someone wrote an article arguing that the First Amendment should be abolished in favor of China-style policies.

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13. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    One top journal sent me a rejection letter seemingly before the piece could have even arrived at their door.

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14. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    I can’t imagine returning to the rigidities of the old model of the hegemony of the top law reviews and few if any other mechanisms by which to get one’s ideas out. But I also think that we’re in a very confused state in which, outside of law and economics, the standards for what is good and bad scholarship are not very clear.

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15. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    1. How do you know before an article appears in print but doesn’t get cited that it is a waste?2. The process of publishing law reviews is itself educational for the students involved.3. You say “The problem.” Is there a problem? What is it?4. Why evidence do you have that scholarship distracts from good teaching? In college, in medical school, and in law school most of my best teachers also were academically productive. The names of David Gregory, Michael Simons, Brian Tamanaha, and Timothy Zick come readily to mind. Those excellent teachers that didn’t write much tended to be productive in other areas other than teaching and practice– they were editors, served on significant committees, etc. That isn’t to say they were good teachers because they wrote, though I believe that to be the case. It may be that their teaching abilities sprang from the same need to communicate ideas to others that drove them to write.

    1. I would think experienced academic advisors and talented law reveiw members should have some idea of the value of the article before publishing it.
    2. I think it’s probably the process of researching and writing the article and having it critiqued that is most educational, like writing a term paper.
    3. The “problem” is that legal education is increasingly very theoretical and esoteric and much less practical, in part, because there are few incentives for law schools and law instructors to provide a practical education, and many incentives to publish. Fewer and fewer legal instructors have significant practical experience upon which to draw.
    4. Good researchers and writers can be good teachers but it is not necessarily so. Teaching involves some different skills. I’ve had some very bright instructors who had written very well but who couldnt teach a lick. Sometimes, it’s because they lack the organizational and communicative skills; sometimes, it’s not that important to them.

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16. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    Citing a law review article is usually a sign of weakness: i.e. I cannot find a court, a restatement, or even a respectable treatise who agrees with me about what the law is. This is particularly true if there is any significant caselaw on the point.

    Others no doubt feel differently.

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17. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    As a practitioner with a varied practice, I will buck the popular trend and say that I find academic articles useful.

    For the practitioner, law review articles are a great way to get a quick taste of a lot of different cases. If I’m pleading (and/or briefing) something unique, I need to know the particular differences in very similar causes of action (i.e., what do courts say is the difference in ultrahazardous activity vs. unreasonably dangerous activity). What are the contours of various affirmative and equitable defenses? How has the IRS treated a similar transaction all across the country? What do all the other federal circuits say on this issue of criminal procedure or sentencing?

    Even if a law review author’s article is never cited by a court, much less other law professors, it may have been used by hundreds of practitioners as an aggregation of cases on a topic or to make the same arguments to an appellate court. These uses aren’t measured (perhaps aren’t easily measurable either) but it does not mean they don’t exist.

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18. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    I think law reviews fulfill the same or a similar function to most other professional publications. Except they’re sort of a hybrid between professional publications and academic journals.I think you can talk about the purpose of law reviews by starting with the saying “hard cases make bad law.”Practicing lawyers are often too busy to reflect on the nature and overall scope of the law and even when they make good legal arguments, they’re always in the service of a particular client.Likewise Judges are bound by the rules of jurisprudence, and more importantly by the scope of a case. At the end of the day, judges have to pick one side or the other. Their own caseloads don’t leave them time to reflect on more abstract rules when having their clerks write or writing themselves a case opinion.Law reviews provide a place for people to reason out and think about the law in a way that helps it develop outside of “person A vs Person B.”

    I respect the people who take the time and bear the personal “expense” of writing the articles.

    In my experience, it’s rare to see a law journal in a law library that looks like its ever been cracked open at all, much less read, other than the mandatory classics like “Assault on the Citadel”, etc. I know of virtually no practicing lawyers who read them, unless the article was written by a friend or a former prof. Most judges don’t have the time or inclination to read them, and they seem to be a complete non factor at the trial court level.

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19. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    What is the function of law reviews, other than to sustain themselves?

    Apart from giving professors a place to publish (which is a topic for another time), they provide a great service to the law students-

    1. They provide a signal to future employers. Law Review is a great credential, and differentiates the better students.

    2. It lets law students master the fine art of research, bluebooking, and total drudgery that has little real-world payoff (for the most part). This is a valuable lesson for those going into large law firms!

    3. For one and two, it equips students to deal with mindless drudgery of being a young associate at a large law firm, and tells large law firms that the students can handle mindless drudgery.

    4. It provides a market to the Bluebook, so occasionally they can change whether the period after Id is italicized or not.

    5. It keeps law students busy their second year, and part of their third. Decreasing crime.

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20. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    Orin Kerr

    In my experience, editors at a number of journals try to put what they see as the most important, substantial, or promising article (or just the article by the most prestigious author) first in the issue. So “lead article” presumably is meant to signal, “the article the editors thought was the best in that issue.”

    With that said, I think that “lead article” status generally shouldn’t be listed on an academic CV. It’s generally not sufficiently notable to deserve mention, especially without knowing what the other articles were, what the journal’s policy is, and why it was selected to go first.

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21. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    In medical science, medical students do not edit the journals; only the most distinguished scientists do. In the humanities and social sciences, distinguished scholars are generally the editors of journals, especially the top ones.

    To use political science (which is often a cognate discipline to law) as an example, George Edwards of Texas A&M, who is a top scholar of the American Presidency, is editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly. Professor Lee Sigelman of GW is editor of the American Political Science Review.

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22. 

    International

    December 20, 2017

    Why do we even still have “law reviews,” meaning bound volumes issued a set number of times per year? Since graduating from law school, I don’t think I’ve ever actually picked up a “law review.” When I’m researching certain topics, I’ll look for good law review articles on Westlaw and print those particular articles. A law review isn’t like an issue of Vanity Fair or the New Yorker, which I’ll peruse to see if there’s anything worth reading.

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