Author(s)
Orin Kerr
Source
84 Washington University Law Review, pp. 1127-1134, 2006
Summary
This paper looks at how blogs affect law professors and public affairs.
Policy Relevance
Blogs let law professors reach a broader audience, but are not the best format for serious discussions.
Main Points
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Because posts on blogs appear in reverse chronological order, they tend to focus attention on the latest entry rather than on the best entry, and are not suitable for serious legal scholarship with lasting value.
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Blogs will remain an important format for criticism and review because of their popularity.
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The Harvard Law Review is read by about 8000 people per issue, but the most popular legal blog, the Volokh Conspiracy, gets 25,000 visits every day.
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Blogger Glen Reynolds has about 100,000 readers.
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Law professors can use blogs to comment and contribute to discussion of public affairs and can reach a broader audience than academic journals.
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Blogs seem to have replaced listservs as the most important technology affecting legal scholarship.
