new and of note

An interesting new article by Amy E. Sloan "reframes" our understanding of the process of legal research. In Step Right Up: Using Consumer Decision Making Theory to Teach Research Process in the Electronic Age, 60 S.C. L. Rev. 123 (2008), Professor Sloan discusses a different way to view the research process, helping us to understand "legal information as a product, the process of research as a purchase transaction, and research instruction as a form of consumer education."

What makes a cited authority authoritative, and to whom? Those questions--and others--are tackled in a new essay by Frederick Schauer, Authority and Authorities, 94 Va. L. Rev. 1931 (2008). He writes, "Citation is . . . law's way of justifying its conclusions in law's characteristically incremental and partially backward-looking way. It may turn out, therefore, that far greater attention to disputes about citation and the nature of permissible legal authorities will yield greater insight not only into how law operates, but also into just what law is."

(I am not the scholarship dude, but I do still like to keep up, and when I find something interesting, share it with you.)

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