Adjunct Law Prof Blog

Blogging As Legal Scholarship

Is blogging legal scholarship? That is the 64,000 question raised by several scholars. Orin Kerr of The Volokh Conspiracy as well as Doug Berman, Steve Bainbridge, Ann Althouse   recently blogged about this. 

Readers may be surprised at my take on all of this. Blogging is NOT legal scholarship. Why? Because a one page posting analyzing a recent case is not nearly as comprehensive as an article. It also does not go through the cite check process and is meant to be a single story.

Are some blog postings important? Yes. Do some blogs contribute to the development of the law? Absolutely. But they are not scholarship. I view them the same as articles in law related publications such as the National Law Journal or law.com. They have a place in the legal academy and should count for something by law schools-but they are not legal scholarship.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Law Professor Blog Rankings

TaxProf Blog complied its annual list of the top 35 Law Prof Blogs, here.  No, we are not on that list-yet, but we are getting close. Congrats to Jim Levy, our contributing editor who also writes at Legal Writing Prof Blog for his enormous contribution which lead to such a large increase in readership.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

50 Great Blogs For And By Law Professors

Online Universities published a list of 50 great blogs by and for Law Professors and we made the cut! The top 23 are as follows:

Legal News

Follow the latest legal cases by visiting these news blogs.

1. Law Blog: The WSJ law blog is updated multiple times a day and follows the big legal cases of the moment and business law.
2. Above the Law: Above the Law is part news, part legal tabloid, and is a great resource for keeping up with behind-the-scenes dirt from law schools, top firms, and major cases.
3. The Volokh Conspiracy: This group blog is mostly written by law professors and focuses on law theory and research, law professors and law school, and top (or just weird) cases.
4. Blawg Review: Get an aggregated list of the week’s best law blog posts here.
5. Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites: Robert Ambrogi is a great resource if you want to find new legal resource websites.
6. The Shark: California law school students keep up with news, salaries and more.
7. Paper Chase: JURIST’s legal news blog is all about "serious law" from "primary sources."
8. Legal Counsel Corner: This legal commentary blog covers the latest headlines in business law, bail bonds, bankruptcy, class action lawsuits, family law and more.
9. ABA Blogs: Find law blogs in every single niche, plus tickers of the featured and most popular blogs and posts.
10. Adjunct Law Prof Blog: Mitchell H. Rubinstein is an adjunct professor at New York Law School and blogs about interesting cases, from domestic violence to health care. He also posts about New York law and law school issues.
11. American Constitution Society: The ACS tracks top law cases and news.

Theory and Philosophy

Here you’ll find discussion and research devoted to legal theory and philosophy.

12. Dorf on Theory: Cornell law professor Michael Dorf, with his lawyer and professor friends, muses on various law topics here.
13. Kenneth Anderson’s Law of War and Just War Theory Blog: This law professor from American University blogs about international laws of war.
14. Ernie the Attorney: Ernie has been blogging since 2002 and examines how the legal system responds to change.
15. Leiter Reports: Law professors will appreciate this philosophy blog that comments on academia, intellectual property and legal philosophy.
16. Florida Student Philosophy Blog: Florida undergrads, grad students and faculty discuss logic, ethics, the philosophy of law and plenty of other topics here.
17. Engage: Conversations in Philosophy: Follow this blog for intriguing discussions and questions about social responsibility, public policy, civil disobedience and more.
18. Feminist Legal Theory: Learn all about feminist legal theory from this blog, published by the UC Davis School of Law.

Business Law

Business law professors will find plenty of resources and commentary on these blogs.

19. M&A Law Prof: Read about mergers and acquisitions and major cases within the industry from Brian JM Quinn and Michael A. Woronoff.
20. May It Please the Court: J. Craig Williams blogs about legal news and mostly business law subjects.
21. The Conglomerate: This blog follows and analyzes top business law cases and economic policy.
22. The Becker-Posner Blog: This prominent blog covers practically everything, but it’s a great resource for business and economics law.
23. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation: HLS faculty and fellows share commentary about business law, banking, and more.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

List of Law School Bloggers

Evidence Prof Blog is putting together a list of law professors who blog, available here. Unlike some other lists, adjunct profs are included and therefore, this blog is included. Readers may find this posting of interest.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein 

Jim Levy Joins Adjunct Law Prof Blog As Contributing Editor

I am delighted to announce that Professor James Levy has joined us as a Contributing Editor. Jim is also a contributing editor at two of our sister blogs, Legal Writing Prof Blog and Law Librarian Prof Blog. Jim teaches Legal Writing at Nova Southeastern Law School in Florida. I think being a contributing editor at 3 blogs must be some type of record. Please join me in welcoming Jim.

You may have also noticed that Professor Eric Lustig (New England School of Law) has decided to leave us. Eric has been with Adjunct Law Prof Blog since we started in May 2007 and please join me in thanking him for his time and contributions.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

2009 Legal Educator Blog Census

Professor Colin Miller over at Evidence Law Prof Blog, one of 50 or so sister blogs that are members of the Law Professor Blog Network did a great job putting together a legal educator blog census.

Here is the portion covering bloggers at law schools starting with A-M:

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2009/09/am-version-20.html

Here is the portion covering bloggers at law schools starting with N-Z:

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2009/09/nz-version-20.html

Here is an alphabetical listing of all blogs:

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2009/09/alphabetical.html

He also complied some statistics which readers may find of interest.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2009/09/rankings.html

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Introduction of Guest Blogger Professor Jim Levy

Jim Levy, associate professor of law-Nova Southeastern, who is a good friend to this blog, asked me the other day if he could guest blog. I was thrilled that he asked. Jim is a contributing editor over at Legal Writing Prof Blog, which is like a sister blog to this one since we are both on the same network and we both often address the same types of stories.
Jim is a graduate of Suffolk University School of Law and Colby College. He has taught at several different law schools, primarily in the area of legal writing. Unlike so many other profs, Jim also practiced law for several years at a major law firm. Therefore, you can be confident that Jim knows what he is talking about. 
Jim is known as the "scholarship dude" and after you read a few postings of his, I think you will understand why. Please join me in welcoming Jim to Adjunct Law Prof Blog.
I expect that Jim's postings will start shortly.


Mitchell H. Rubinstein 

New York Criminal Practice Blog

There is a new blog in town that focuses on New York Criminal Practice and Procedure. It is run by Professor Larry Cunningham, a legal writing professor at St. John's Law School. Professor Cunningham explained his reasons for starting this blog as follows:

The practice of criminal law in New York is incredibly complex and sophisticated.  The Penal Law, for example, has one of the most complex sentencing regimes in the nation, along with numerous crimes, such as depraved indifference murder, that have rich bodies of case law interpreting their meaning.  The Criminal Procedure Law is filled with traps and missed opportunities for the unwary and uninformed.  The New York Court of Appeals and the four Departments of the Appellate Division regularly churn out important decisions that interpret and apply these provisions.

At the same time, there exists a scarcity of resources--particularly on the web--for attorneys and judges to stay current on the substantive and procedural law of New York criminal practice.  This blog hopes to fill this void by providing:

• information about new cases from the Court of Appeals and Appellate Division;
• summaries of important new decisions;
• commentaries about emerging and contentious topics;
• advice about how to handle particular legal questions and problems;
• news about important pending cases and controversies; and
• a forum for the exchange of ideas about these topics, through user comments.

Although I have a background in both prosecution and criminal defense, I am hoping to offer a neutral, objective perspective on these subjects.  I am not maintaining this blog as advertising or a way to obtain clients.  As a full-time law professor, I hope to bring an academic, yet practical, perspective on New York Criminal Law and Procedure

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.  (LC)

Please check out this blog. Even if you do not practice criminal law, you may want to bookmark it for future reference.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

 

Top Law Professor Blogs

Dean Paul Caron (who owns this Network) and runs TaxProf Blog has an interesting Oct. 30, 2008 posting ranking the top law professor blogs. No we are not on it yet. The blog numbered 35, Legal History Blog (last on this list) had 125,00 plus visitors in the last year. We are getting close to that number, but we are not there yet. Query, whether they would include a blog run by an Adjunct in law professor blog rankings. Unfortunately, I do not believe that they will do so.

So lets teach them a lesson and surpass those rankings.

Speaking of rankings, whose on top? InstaPundi.

Congratuations to Paul and all those for a job well done.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein 

 

Women Bloggers

Where Are All the Female Law Bloggers? is an interesting Oct. 6, 2008 law.com article which quotes this network's co-founder Joe Hodnicki. Joe (who also runs Law Librarian Blog) is quoted as saying about 30% of the law bloggers are female which is about the number of woman who blog on this network. Its abit unclear whether the 30% figure relates to just law professor bloggers or law bloggers in general.

The article postulates some possible reasons for this. They are:

Theory #1: Women law bloggers are out there, you just don't see them.

Theory #2: Women don't have the same time to blog as men.

Theory #3: Women are more prone to professional or personal attack, so they avoid blogging.

My theory is that there is no reason at all for this. That is just the way it is for now and it may change. I refuse to accept that because woman are 50% of the population, they have to be 50% of the bloggers or for example, because blacks are 12% of the population, they should be 12% of the bloggers.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein 

Adjunct Law Prof Blog Cited In National Jurist

The September 2008 National Jurist has a story by Karen Dybis entitled "Law Professor Raises Eyebrows" (link not available) which is about a University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Professor who, believe it or not, is suing one of his students for defamation. I am quoted as saying:

"Though I suppose professors have the right to sue just like everyone else in America, suing your students, well, that's just over the line-way over the line in my book."

We originally reported on this here and here.

The article also cites to noted bloggers Paul Caron, Ann Althouse and Steven Bainbridge.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Law Professor Blog Ratings

Law Professor Blog Emperor, better known as Paul Caron, over at Tax Prof Blog posted a list of the top 35 law school professor blogs. Adjunct Prof Blog is not there yet, but we are gunning for inclusion on that list. I hope that Adjuncts are included in the defintion of law professor! Paul's list is as follows:

 

Blog Citations

The Race to the Bottom has an interesting  June 29, 2008 posting comparing the number of blogs cited in court opinions to the number of time rockers have been cited in court decisions. The numbers are as follows:

Rockers                                                         Law Blog

1. Bob Dylan (26)                                  Sentencing Law and Policy -- 28
2. Paul Simon/Simon & Garfunkel (12)    Volokh Conspiracy -------------- 3
3. Bruce Springsteen (5)                        ProfessorBainbridge ------------ 3
4. The Rolling Stones (4)                        Ideoblog ----------------------------- 2
5. The Beatles (3)                                  Prawfs Blawg --------------------- 1
6. The Grateful Dead (2)                         Legal Theory Blog --------------- 1
7. Joni Mitchell (1)                                 LessigBlog ------------------------- 1
                                                            Instapundit ------------------------- 1
                                                            Immigration Law Prof Blog --- 1
                                                            Patently O ------------------------- 1
                                                            The Race to the Bottom ------ 1

Maybe one of these days, Adjunct Blog Prof will be cited by a court! We recently were cited in a law review article. See, Note, RETURN TO SENDER: OFF-CAMPUS STUDENT SPEECH BROUGHT ON-CAMPUS BY ANOTHER STUDENT, 82 St. John's Law Rev. 1087, n. 43, n. 57 (Summer 2008).

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Are Blogs Legal Scholarship??

I just came across Brian Leiter, Why Are Blogs Bad For Legal Scholarship, 116 Yale L. J. Pocket Part 53 (2006), which I read with great interest. Professor Leiter, who runs several well know blogs himself,( here ) main point appears to be that professor blogs are bad for legal scholarship because they are not vetted. As he explains, blogs eliminate "mediating boundaries: of distance, experience, education, and intelligence." He also maintains that because of the  instant reach of blogs, an article may receive "blogospheric buzz" even though that article does not deserve it. 

Though by blogging standards, this article is a bit dated (it's almost two years old), Professor Leiter's observations are still correct. I would, however, characterize the issue differently than Professor Leiter. It's not that blogs are bad for scholarship. Rather, it's that most blogs are NOT legal scholarship. In fact, they are not intended to be scholarship. They are intended to alert the reader of a recent case or of new developments in a field of law. They are not intended to provide an overall review of the law in a particular area as traditional law reviews are. In my view, they should be used by scholars as a place to find ideas about larger articles and by attorneys as a way to keep up with recent development in their field of law. They can also be used by students to learn about the law and to help them choose a field of law to specialize in. 

Most importantly, blogs quickly spread knowledge of legal issues and give readers the opportunity to comment. Law reviews are becoming less important today. Just look at how many courts are citing to them. Why? I submit there are two major reasons; articles are too long and take too long to get  published.

So what's the solution to legal scholarship? Actually, I think it was right on Professor Leiter's desk. It's online journals such as Yale Law Journal's Pocket Part which publish shorter articles much quicker than traditional law reviews-sometimes much quicker.

I was able to publish this article in Northwestern Law Review Colloquy about 6 weeks after the Supreme Court decision it discusses. Unlike Yale Law Journal's Pocket Part, Northwestern also allows readers to comment and publishes responses to scholarship. In my view, that is where the future of scholarship lies.

I recognize that others have expressed similar views to mine. Therefore, this posting is by no means formal legal scholarship.

Professor Leiter, care to comment??

Mitchell H. Rubinstein      

Adjunct Law Prof Blog Listed As Number 10 In Top 100 Law and Lawyers Blog

Criminal Justice Degree Guide contains a very helpful directory of law and law professor blogs. I am delighted to report that we are listed as number 10.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Who Is Responsible For Blogging Comments??

Professors Sunstein and Volokh had an interesting video debate about who owns comments posted on blogs. That is an important issue and is likely to become more important as the use of blogs continues to increase. There debate can be viewed here.

Professor Leiter, who runs multiple blogs and who discussed this on his Law School Report Report Blog,  offers a simple solution to limit liablity. Limit who could post and pick and choose which comments are  actually posted on your blog.(For example, Brian has rejected a number of my comments in the past). That is exactly the problem, however. With respect to Professor Leiter, if a blog editor moderates what could be posted he or she is making a value judgement that later may be challenged.

One thing blog editors could do would be to include a disclaimer on their blog. I have one on mine which readers of this posting are authorized to copy if they would like. I am frankly stunned that most law professors do not include such disclaimers. I would even go a step further and recommend that Network owners include disclaimers. I have mentioned this to several well known professor bloggers, but no one seems to be listening. Perhaps, the Sunstein/Volokh debate may open up some professor's eyes.

In any event, this is also an excellent issue that is ripe for law review commentary.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Blogs As A Teaching Tool

I just came across McBlogmick a blog run by Cumberland Law School Professor Marcia McCormick. Professor McCormick is also a Contributing Editor on Workplace Prof Blog. Professor McCormick appears to use her blog to post a series of lesson podcasts, make class announcements, administrative announcements such a change in office hours and, most importantly as repository to upload documents. It appears that students can organize this material into their own folders.

Not only is this a wonderful idea for teaching, but it also gives perspective future students an idea about the class and about the professor. I think Professor McCormick just might be on to something here.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein   

Blogs As Law School Pedalogical Teaching Tools

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting April 29, 2008 entitled A Class Blog Studies Fair Use which is about a blog run by Case Western Law School Professor Peter Friedman. The Blog is entitled What is Fair Use and as far as I could tell, students post information in response to topics that may be discussed in class. As the article states:

The blog, created by associate professor Peter B. Friedman, supplements a legal analysis and writing class. Each semester the students are given a legal problem that’s used in their writing assignments. Mr. Friedman said this is the first time he’s used a blog to extend class discussion, and the second time he’s chosen a fair-use issue for the course theme (the previous fair-use problem covered Google’s library digitization project).

“Of all the things I’ve tried, the blog has been the most successful in promoting discussion,” Mr. Friedman told the Chronicle. “It’s certainly especially suited to fair-use discussions, since we can post videos.”

What a wonderful use of technology. The trick is finding a way to incorporate blogs into class.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Judge Estlinbaum Joins Adjunct Law Professor Blog As Contributing Editor

I am delighted to announce that Judge Craig Estlinbaum of the 130th Judicial Court of Texas has joined Adjunct Law Prof Blog as a Contributing Editor. Judge Estlinbaum is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law where he teaches damages. The Hon. Estlinbaum is a graduate of South Texas College of Law where he also served as Editor-in-Chief of the law review. 

Please join me in welcoming Judge Estlinbaum to the blogosphere.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Law Professor Blog Rankings

Blog Czar Dean Paul Caron who is a co-owner of the law professor blog network and editor of the TaxProf Blog posted on April 8, 2008 a listing of the top 35 law professor blogs ranked by traffic, available here. No, Adjunct Law Prof Blog is not on that list-YET. Then again, we have not been in business a year which is one of the criteria. InstaPundit by GLENN REYNOLDS? a law professor at the University of Tennessee takes top honors.   

My question is whether blog traffic is an appropriate measure of blog quality. Might there be some  first rate blogs which do not generate significant traffic because they do not concentrate on fields of law that are in vogue? Does it also matter whether other scholars and lawyers are looking at the blog or whether the blog is largely visited by the general public? What about advertising revenue and the number of times the blog has been cited in courts and/or law reviews?

Perhaps ranking law professor blogs is alittle like U.S. News and World Reports law school rankings. Something to look at, highly over-rated and far from a dispositive indication of actual quality.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein