Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship

I am delighted that the papers from our symposium on Bloggership:  How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship, held on April 28, 2006 at Harvard Law School, have finally been published in 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1025-1261 (2006).  (It is, of course, ironic that a symposium on how blogs are transforming legal scholarship is finally published over 18 months after the event and after the papers were first posted online.)

My Introduction is Are Scholars Better Bloggers?, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1025 (2006).  Here is the abstract:

These are the opening remarks I delivered at the symposium on Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship at Harvard Law School on April 28, 2006. Part One describes how my work on TaxProf Blog and the Law Professor Blog Network led me to organize this Symposium. Part Two takes inspiration from Jim Lindgren's work, Are Scholars Better Teachers?, 73 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 823 (1998), to ask, using our twenty-three panelists as guinea pigs, Are Scholars Better Bloggers? The data indicate that our participants include some of the most heavily-cited and heavily-downloaded legal scholars who edit many of the most heavily-trafficked law blogs. Although the data do not do not conclusively answer the question raised, they demonstrate that we have assembled an impressive array of scholar-bloggers in the first conference on the impact of blogs on legal scholarship.

The papers and commentary are organized around four themes: (1) Law Blogs as Legal Scholarship (papers by Doug Berman, Kate Litvak, Larry Solum, and Eugene Volokh; commentary by Paul Butler, Jim Lindgren, and Ellen Podgor); (2) The Role of the Law Professor Blogger (papers by Gail Heriot, Orin Kerr, and Gordon Smith; commentary by Randy Barnett and Michael Froomkin); (3) Law Blogs and the First Amendment (papers by Glenn Reynolds and Eric Goldman; commentary by Betsy Malloy and Dan Solove); and (4) The Many Faces of Law Professor Blogs (papers by Ann Althouse, Christine Hurt & Tung Yin, and Larry Ribstein; commentary by Howard Bashman). Paul Butler perhaps best captured the spirit of the Symposium with this clarion call: "Blogs are walking up to legal scholarship and slapping it in the face. Blogs say to legal scholarship: 'How dare you! Evolve or Die!' . . . I feel like I am part of a movement that could change the world."

Law Blogs as Legal Scholarship

• Papers:
  • Douglas A. Berman (Ohio State; Sentencing Law and Policy): Scholarship in Action: The Power, Possibilities, and Pitfalls for Law Professor Blogs, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1043 (2006).
  • Kate Litvak (Texas): Blog as a Bugged Water Cooler, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1061 (2006).
  • Lawrence B. Solum (Illinois; Legal Theory Blog): Blogging and the Transformation of Legal Scholarship, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1073 (2006). 
  • Eugene Volokh (UCLA; The Volokh Conspiracy): Scholarship, Blogging and Trade-offs: On Discovering, Disseminating, and Doing, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1089 (2006). 
• Commentators:
  • Paul Butler (George Washington; BlackProf), Blogging at BlackProf, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1101 (2006).
  • James Lindgren (Northwestern; The Volokh Conspiracy), Is Blogging Scholarship? Why Do You Want To Know?, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1105 (2006).
  • Ellen S. Podgor (Stetson; White Collar Crime Prof Blog), Blogs And The Promotion And Tenure Letter, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1109 (2006).

The Role of the Law Professor Blogger

• Papers:
  • Gail Heriot (San Diego; The Right Coast): Are Modern Bloggers Following in the Footsteps of Publius? (And Other Musings on Blogging by Legal Scholars...), 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1113 (2006).
  • Orin S. Kerr (George Washington; The Volokh Conspiracy): Blogs and the Legal Academy, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1127 (2006).
  • D. Gordon Smith (BYU; Conglomerate): Bit By Bit: A Case Study of Bloggership, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1135 (2006). 
• Commentators:
  • Randy E. Barnett (Georgetown; The Volokh Conspiracy), Caveat Blogger: Blogging and the Flight From Scholarship, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1145 (2006). 
  • A. Michael Froomkin (Miami; Discourse.net), The Plural of Anecdote Is "Blog," 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1149 (2006). 

Law Blogs and the First Amendment

• Papers:
  • Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Tennessee; InstaPundit), Libel in the Blogosphere: Some Preliminary Thoughts, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1157 (2006). 
  • Eric Goldman (Santa Clara; Technology & Marketing Law Blog): Co-Blogging Law, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1169 (2006). 
• Commentators:
  • S. Elizabeth Malloy (Cincinnati; Health Law Prof Blog), Anonymous Bloggers And Defamation: Balancing Interests On The Internet, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1187 (2006). 
  • Daniel J. Solove (George Washington; Concurring Opinions), A Tale Of Two Bloggers: Free Speech And Privacy in the Blogosphere, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1195 (2006). 

The Many Faces of Law Professor Blogs

• Papers:
  • Larry E. Ribstein (Illinois; Ideoblog): The Public Face of Scholarship, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1201 (2006). 
  • Ann Althouse (Wisconsin; Althouse): Why a Narrowly Defined Legal Scholarship Blog Is Not What I Want: An Argument in Pseudo-Blog Form, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1221 (2006). 
  • Christine Hurt (Illinois; Conglomerate) & Tung Yin (Iowa; The Yin Blog): Blogging While Untenured and Other Extreme Sports, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1235 (2006). 
• Commentator:
  • Howard J. Bashman (Law Offices of Howard J. Bashman; How Appealing), The Battle Over the Soul of Law Professor Blogs, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1257 (2006).

See also:

• Agenda
• Blogosphere Coverage
• Program
• Schedule
• SSRN Conference Page
• Webcast
  • Panel #1:  Law Blogs as Legal Scholarship
  • Panel #2:  The Role of the Law Professor Blogger
  • Panel #3:  Law Blogs and the First Amendment
  • Panel #4:  The Many Faces of Law Professor Blogs