Law reviews taking online blog presence

Ken Strutin, an experienced law librarian, criminal defense attorney, and well-known writer and speaker, has published a nice piece at LLRX regarding law reviews taking an online blog or ‘blog like’ presence.

Common themes for why law schools are creating an online presence for their law reviews include:

• Immediate reporting and commentary for recent changes in the law.
• Critique and commentary from academics, practitioners, and law students.
• Short form articles from scholars, practitioners, and students not included in law reviews.
• Making the law review more relevant with the legal blogosphere. (love this one)

Here’s a list of what Ken found on the law review front (let me know of more):

• CONNtemplations, Connecticut Law Review. Features pieces from a number of authors on topics related to the relevance and future of legal periodicals.
• Environmental Law Online, Lewis & Clark Law School’s Environmental Law. Selected articles and essays from print journal, web-only articles, and an archive of 9th Circuit case reviews.
• First Impressions, Michigan Law Review. Features op-ed length articles by academics and practitioners in order to fill the gap between the blogosphere and the traditional law review article so as to provide a forum for quicker dissemination of the legal community’s first impressions of recent changes in the law.
• Harvard International Law Journal Online. Web-based component of the Harvard International Law Journal, publishing brief, focused articles on a variety of international law topics.
• Harvard Law Review Forum. Online extension of our printed pages that is intended to allow for a more robust scholarly discussion of our Articles.
• iBlawg, Duke Law and Technology Review. Interactive environment dedicated to publishing brief commentary and facilitating an online discussion about published articles.
• Ideas, Hofstra University Law Review. Vehicle for short pieces from the academy and from prominent members of the bench of interest to scholars and practitioners.

In Brief,Virginia Law Review. Short essays and responses by law professors, judges, practicing lawyers, scholars from other disciplines, and current law students.

• Journal of the Business Law Society, University of Illinois College of Law. Weblog technology is utilized to allow students, faculty, and professionals to interact online through legal writing and scholarship; providing a unique complement to traditional law reviews. The purpose is to to provide our readers with information on recent developments affecting business law.
• Northwestern Colloquy, Northwestern University Law Review. Features legal commentary written in the form of blog posts allowing scholars to publish their thoughts within days of an emerging legal development.
• PENNumbra, University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Seeks to engage a broader audience in legal scholarship by serving as a link between legal academia and the ‘blogosphere.’
• See Also, Texas Law Review. Online companion to the Texas Law Review that presents responses and critiques of recently published articles in the Review in order to promote further discussion of the topics addressed in the Review.
• Slip Opinions, Washington University Law Review. Online supplement featuring original commentary and debate by members of the legal academy, bench and bar.
• TexSupp, Baylor Law Review. Insightful legal literature including essays, book reviews, responses and letters to the editor.
• Yale Journal Pocket Part, Yale Law Journal. As publications often contain “pocket part” supplements with up-to-date information, the Pocket Part plays an analogous role by augmenting the scholarship printed in The Yale Law Journal.

Thanks to Michel-Adrien Sheppard for the heads up on Ken’s piece.

Technorati Tags: law reviews, law school blogs