Legal Theory Blog

Law Talk by Nate Oman: Episode One with Steve Smith

Nate Oman (who is partially responsible for the existence of Legal Theory Blog) has posted the link to the first episode of Law Talk, a series of interviews with legal scholars about their work, on Conglomorate.  This is a great idea--and Steve Smith is a wonderful choice for the first interview.  Surf here to check it out!

Schilt on Legal Scholarship in the Blogosphere

On Law.com, Margaret Schilt has Is the Future of Legal Scholarship in the Blogosphere?. Here is a taste:

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. Tung Yin and Christine Hurt, in an article called "Blogging While Untenured and Other Extreme Sports," write, "Conventional wisdom seems to warn that blogging may be a risky venture for those academic bloggers who have not been awarded tenure and the liberating academic freedom that comes with that award." You may inadvertently offend someone important, you may be -- gasp! -- wrong or you may simply be lured into spending too much time blogging and not enough time creating scholarship and knowledge in the more traditional forms. Blogging, in short, can be addictive. Regular posting to maintain the dialogue and interchange that leads to readership drains time from other pursuits.

Why, then, spend the time? One answer is that a blog reaches far more readers than traditional scholarship. Eugene Volokh said in 2006 that his blog gets about 20,000 unique visitors a day. Readers of traditional law review articles are not counted, but, he says, he's pretty sure that number is very far from 20,000.

Junior Scholars Workshop at Conglomerate

Over at the Conglomerate Junior Scholars Workshop, check out the discussion of Darian Ibrahim's The (Not So) Puzzling Behavior of Angel Investors.

Conglomerate Junior Scholars Workshop Today

Information at Conglomerate's Junior Scholars Workshop: Alexander Volokh.  Sascha's paper is: Privatization and the Law and Economics of Political Advocacy.

Balkinzation Posts on Torture, Etc.

Over at Balkinization, Marty Lederman has posted The Anti-Torture Memos: Balkinization Posts on Torture, Interrogation, Detention, War Powers, Executive Authority, DOJ and OLC, a comprehensive list with links to the many fine posts by Lederman, Balkin, Graber, Griffin, Horton, Levinson, Luban, Tamanaha, and a variety of guest bloggers.

Junior Scholars Workshop at Conglomorate

Today is the first day of the Conglomerate Junior Scholars Workshop hosted at Conglomerate.  The  first paper is Reinventing Consumer Protection by David Friedman (VAP, Willamette) with expert commentary by Larry Garvin, Bob Lawless, Ronald Mann, and last year's workshop participant on this topic, Adam Levitin.

Welcome to the Blogosphere . . .

. . . to Feminist Philosophers!

Welcome to the Blogosphere . . .

. . . to International Law Reporter by Jacob Cogan.

Welcome to the Blogosphere . . .

. . . to Progressive Liberty Blog from Michael Anthony Lawrence at Michigan State University's law school.

Link to Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings Site

Brian Leiter has requested that I link to his rankings site via his name.  So here goes:

Brian Leiter

Leiter performs a very valuable service, especially by compiling this:

Brian Leiter: Faculty Quality Rankings: Scholarly Reputation

Leiter's scholarly reputation rankings are the best and most important source of information about faculty quality (but are not, of course, perfect or close to it).  Here's hoping they are updated soon!