Law Commons^™

Yesterday Once More: Skeptics, Scribes And The Demise Of Law Reviews, Bernard J. Hibbitts

Akron Law Review

Readers of the present collection of commentaries in this Special Issue of the Akron Law Review will recognize these points. They are all criticisms of the system of electronic self-publication that I proposed in my Web-posted article Last Writes? Re-assessing the Law Review in the Age of Cyberspace. But they are also recognizable from another context. Five hundred years ago, every one of them was leveled at the scholarly proponents of commercial printing.

Scholarly Legal Monographs: Advantages Of The Road Less Taken, William G. Ross

Akron Law Review

Although many of Professor Bernard J. Hibbitts's criticisms of law reviews in the accompanying article may be excessive, Hibbitts's arguments for the advantages of self publication on the Web are provocative. Although I do not believe that self publication is likely to replace law reviews during the foreseeable future, Hibbitts almost surely is correct in predicting that increasing numbers of law professors will use the Web as an alternative to traditional modes of publication.

Hibbitts, however, has overlooked another alternative to the traditional law review books. This is not surprising, since legal academics traditionally have disseminated their scholarship through law …

Reassessing Professor Hibbitts's Requiem For Law Reviews, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

Akron Law Review

The details vary from law review to law review, but typically, an accepted article is edited three times, once for technical compliance with the Bluebook manual of citation, once for substance and clarity, and again by a senior editor. Every citation is checked to confirm that it supports the proposition for which it is offered. The author sees the article at least twice during the process, once after the manuscript has been edited, and again at the galley or page proof stage.

Next, the article is typeset (increasingly, this simply means that a word processing file submitted by the author …

Review Of Hibbitts's Last Writes?, Trotter Hardy

Akron Law Review

Professor Hibbitts's review of the history of law reviews was interesting. For me, the most notable part of that history was his placing the law review in context, not only of the times and the desire of law faculty to be recognized as part of the academic world, but of technology. He points out that declining costs in the print publishing world helped fuel the growth of law reviews. I do not know the history of publishing well enough to know whether the 1890s (the beginning period of law review formation) was a watershed time, but surely publishing costs do …

Swift, Modest Proposals, Babies, And Bathwater: Are Hibbitts's Writes Right?, Thomas R. Bruce

Akron Law Review

That is one of the reasons I fidget a bit as I read Last Writes?. I think that doing what Hibbitts proposes and more to the point, doing it well will be rather more work than he lets on, and will be anything but immediate. It will be a difficult kind of work, the thorny, self critical kind that law schools generally avoid like the plague. While Hibbitts does an excellent job of outlining the possible objections to his "modest proposal," I think that he underestimates the tenacity of the existing culture. I also think he misses some of the …

Self-Publication On The Internet And The Future Of Law Reviews, Gregory E. Maggs

Akron Law Review

This essay presents a different vision of the future. Part I explains why law reviews might continue to exist even after self-publication on the Internet becomes the norm. It suggests that law reviews could still perform many of the functions they currently perform, even it they get out of the business of publishing. Part II then argues that law schools should favor the continued existence of law reviews. It explains that law reviews stimulate and enrich the students who volunteer to serve on them, and that developments on the Internet will make the law review experience even more valuable. Part …

Eliminate The "Middle Man"?, Richard Delgado

Akron Law Review

The Editors of the Akron Law Review have asked me what I think of Bernard Hibbitts's suggestion that legal scholars do away with the law review as an institution and publish their work directly on the Internet, as he has done.

I like the idea of publishing one's work directly on the Internet. Self- publishing has a long and honorable history. Indeed, our early colonial patriots surreptitiously typeset tracts and pamphlets like Common Sense in homes and small back-alley print shops and distributed them themselves a method that could be likened to today's desktop and Internet publishing. Even in our …

How Valid Is The Often-Repeated Accusation That There Are Too Many Legal Articles And Too Many Law Reviews?, Howard A. Denemark

Akron Law Review

Law professors working at terminals with an Internet connection to the Web need not worry any more about whether the subject of a piece is too esoteric, too doctrinal, too complicated or even too impolitic for law review editors; we are free to write and publish on the topics of our choice. This freedom might give us a useful antidote to the substantive . . . sameness of the reviews as they now exist. On the Web, we need not endure months of frustrating or embarrassing delay while our papers are judged, peer reviewed, edited or printed in formal journals; …

The Future Of Legal Scholarship And Scholarly Communication: Publication In The Age Of Cyberspace, David A. Rier

Akron Law Review

In Part I of this paper, I will review the essentials of Hibbitts's discussion, and his argument that electronic self-publication of legal scholarship soon willand shouldreplace the edited, printed law review as we know it today. In Part II, I apply sociological analysis to explore some special features of the audience for and functions of legal scholarship. I will build upon this discussion in Part III, which explains why legal scholarship is a poor candidate for electronic self-publication, and why self-publication is a poor use of the Internet's potential for scholarly communication. In the concluding Part IV, I outline some …

Last Writes? Re-Assesing The Law Review In The Age Of Cyberspace, Bernard J. Hibbitts

Akron Law Review

The full-text version of this article1 offers a comprehensive re-assessment of the law review from the perspective of the present age of cyberspace. Such a re-assessment is best begun with an investigation of the academic and technological conditions that initially joined to generate the genre. The standard story setting out the origin of the American law review runs as follows: in 1887, a group of enterprising Harvard law students, backed by visionary faculty and supportive Harvard alumni, commenced publication of a student-edited legal periodical (the Harvard Law Review) which soon became the model for many others. The story is factually …

Cyberspace: The Final Frontier, For Regulation?, Jay Krasovec

Akron Law Review

This article will discuss the concept of anonymity on the Internet and argue for its protection. Part II provides background information on the Internet and illustrates the prominence the Internet has in today's global society. Part III discusses the concept of anonymity and its importance in our daily communications and how these principles necessarily extend to online communication. Part IV outlines the purported justifications for regulating Internet content, which is followed by Part V discussing current and attempted regulations of the Internet. This article then argues for the full protection of online anonymous speech as mandated by fundamental principles of …

Www.Obscenity.Com: An Analysis Of Obscenity And Indecency Regulation Of The Internet, Kelly M. Doherty

Akron Law Review

This comment explores the constitutionality of federal regulations as applied to Internet content and alternatives to government regulation. Part II provides background on the Internet, First Amendment obscenity and indecency law as applied to communications media, and past and current legislation enacted to regulate Internet content. Part III analyzes the constitutionality of COPA, and discusses why other alternatives are more effective and preferable to government regulation. Part IV concludes that protecting children from harmful Internet content is the responsibility of parents, and therefore, Internet regulation should begin at home.

Copyright Tensions In A Digital Age, John D. Shuff, Geoffrey T. Holtz

Akron Law Review

The rapid and exponential expansion of our ability to duplicate and disseminate information by digital means has rejuvenated inherent tensions in the law pertaining to copyright and has created some new ones. Not since the advent of radio in the early 1900s have such tensions come so squarely into focus. Even though courts are rarely, if ever, called upon to address certain of these tensions since the passage of the Copyright Act of 1976, they are being called upon to do so now

The Medium Is The Message: Copyright Law Confronts The Information Age In New York Times V. Tasini, Mark B. Radefeld

Akron Law Review

This Note analyzes the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in New York Times Co. v. Tasini and its implications for the future of copyright law and electronic publishing. Part II of this Note documents the background of copyright law, and details how the default provisions of §201(c) govern the publisher-author relationship. Part III of this Note introduces the parties and circumstances surrounding the Tasini case. Part III continues by outlining the District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Supreme Court decisions in this landmark case. Part IV of this …

Pole Position: National Cable & Telecommunications Ass'n V. Gulf Power Co. And The Implications Of The Fcc's Pole Attachments Act Reading Higher Ground, Darci Deltoro

Akron Law Review

Both high-speed Internet access via commingled cables and wireless communications are complex and cutting edge topics in today’s world of ever changing information technology. This Note examines how these issues were addressed recently in Nat’l Cable & Telecomms. Ass’n, Inc. v. Gulf Power Co. (Gulf Power). Part II of this Note provides a review of the Pole Attachments Act, focusing particularly on using the purpose behind the Act to establish the minimum and maximum limitations of its coverage. Part III discusses the factual and procedural history of the Gulf Power case, first addressing the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh …

United States V. American Library Association: The Choice Between Cash And Constitutional Rights, Barbara A. Sanchez

Akron Law Review

This Note discusses the possibility that the Court, in its eagerness to protect children, twisted established First Amendment doctrines to uphold CIPA and declined to address other legal issues that weaken CIPA’s constitutionality. Part II provides a historical background of previous legislation attempting to protect children accessing the Internet, explains what CIPA is and compares it to previous legislation, and also discusses current filtering technology and its limitations. Part III provides a statement of the facts, including the procedural history of the case. Part IV analyzes the Court’s confusing and inconsistent application of firmly established rules dealing with Congress’ spending …

Regulating Electronic Legal Support Across State And National Boundaries, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Akron Law Review

Given the combination of digital communications, porous state and national borders, and a growing need for affordable legal services, it is likely that practices now at the margins of legal practice will quickly grow in scope. Technological changes and increasing globalization allow foreign lawyers to compete in the U.S. market for legal service. The downward price movement from this increased competition allows middle-class individuals who would otherwise have represented themselves to hire legal counsel — albeit, in some cases, counsel from individuals not licensed to practice in the client’s jurisdiction, or even in the client’s home country. Regulators, used to …