From a trickle to a flood: A case study of the current index to legal periodicals to examine the swell of American law journals published in the last fifty years

Legal Reference Services Quarterly

Volumn 31, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 150-183

  Wolotira, Alena ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

Current index to legal periodicals; Law journals; Law reviews; Law schools; Legal publication

Indexed keywords

EID: 84862651178     PISSN: 0270319X     EISSN: 1540949X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0270319X.2012.682930     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. App A, List of Law Journals Indexed by CILP in 2010 with Initial Publication Date.
2. The University of Washington School of Law Library was renamed in 1981 after Mrs. Marian Gould Gallagher, the much-beloved and venerated director of the library for thirty-seven years.
3. Penny Hazelton, Marian Gould Gallagher: A Memorial, 82 L. Lib. J. 399-401 (1990). Available at http://lib.law.washington.edu/dir/mgg.html (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012). Prior to the renaming in 1981, the listed author of CILP is the University of Washington Law Library.
4. The first copy of CILP that the Gallagher Law Library has in its Special Collections is dated Oct. 19, 1936. This copy is entitled Weekly Index to Leading Articles and Notes. Mrs. Gallagher took over the publication when she started working at the law library in 1944. The title and contents of the publication changed four times during the 1940s until it became the Current Index to Legal Periodicals on Jan. 7, 1947.
5. Susan Schroeter-Stokes, History of the Current Index to Legal Periodicals-1938-1998 App. C at 17 (Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library 1998) (hereinafter History of CILP).
6. George S. Grossman, Legal Research: Historical Foundations of the Electronic Age 304 (Oxford Press 1994) (stating that CILP "has never been cumulated; it is designed simply to be perused weekly and then discarded.").
7. Initially, I had planned on using CILP to analyze quite a few more areas of legal scholarship. I wanted to study the changes in subject headings as a way of showing changes in the terms used to discuss legal topics, and I wanted to count how many articles, case notes, comments, and symposia had been published during each year under each subject heading. Studying the changes in subject headings was difficult because so many headings had been broken up, consolidated, created, or discontinued during the years. The article counting likewise became a problem once I got to 1990, because CILP had changed its classification policies by adding many more categories (e.g., student-written pieces, book reviews, and differentiations between notes and case notes). Because of this change in policy, it was nearly impossible to compare data from 1960 to 1980 with the data from 1990 to 2010. Furthermore, due to the vast increase in journals indexed by CILP from 1990 on, the task of hand-counting the number of articles indexed under each subject heading during each week took more and more time to accomplish. My initial plan was stymied mid-1990, and I decided that I should focus on the journals themselves, as opposed to the contents of the journals. Although CILP may not have been necessary to study student-edited law journals (because a list of these titles could have been compiled relatively easily by going to each law school's Web site), it was invaluable for studying nonexclusively student-edited law journals because no comprehensive list of these journals seems to exist anywhere. What started out as a plan to use CILP to study many different aspects of American legal scholarship ended up being a very narrow topic focusing less on the substance and form of the scholarship and more on the editing process of law journals, the number of new journals published, and the specialized focus of many of the journals.
8. University of Washington Law Library, Purpose,1 Wkly. Index Leading Articles and Notes 1 (Oct. 19, 1936), reprinted in History of CILP, supra n. 3, App. C at 17.
9. M. G. Gallagher Law Library, Online Catalog Entry for Current Index to Legal Periodicals, available at http://marian.law.washington.edu/record=b1035306-S0 (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012).
10. M. G. Gallagher Law Library, Selections from Current Periodicals, 1945 Current Index to Leg. Periodicals 1 (Jan. 15, 1945).
11. Westlaw, CILP Scope, available at http://www.westlaw.com
12. The earliest documented iteration of CILP was the Weekly Index to Leading Articles and Notes, prepared by the librarians of the University of Washington Law Library for law school faculty. History of CILP, supra n. 3, at 7.
13. History of CILP, supra n. 3, at 7.
14. History of CILP, supra n. 3, at 14.
15. Betty Wilkins, Current Index to Legal Periodicals (1981), in History of CILP, supra n. 3, App. A at 14.
16. As of February of 2011, CILP had a total subscriber base of 283 practitioners and institutions. CILP, Subscriber Statistics of Current Index to Legal Periodicals 2010-2011 (Feb. 2011) (copy on file with author's institution).
17. History of CILP, supra n. 3, at 5.
18. History of CILP, supra n. 3, at 5.
19. History of CILP, supra n. 3, at 5.
20. M. G. Gallagher Law Library, Legal Periodicals, Collection Development Policy Manual 2 (2011) (copy on file with author's institution) (hereinafter Legal Periodicals).
21. M. G. Gallagher Law Library, CILP Internal Policy, Current Index to Legal Periodicals 1 (last revised Oct. 1990) (copy on file with author's institution).
22. U.S. News & World Rep., 2011 Best Law School Rankings, available at http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012) (hereinafter 2011 U.S. News Rankings).
23. HeinOnline, Law Journal Library, available at http://www.HeinOnline.org (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012).
24. M. G. Gallagher Law Library, Law Library Only, available at http://lib.law.washington.edu (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012) (located in the "Library Categories" section of MGGLL's Web page).
25. Wash. & Lee Univ. School of L., Law Journals: Submissions and Ranking, available at http://lawlib.wlu.edu/lj (last accessed May 6, 2011) (hereinafter W & L, Journals List).
26. Copy on file with author's institution.
27. Copy on file with author's institution.
28. 2011 U.S. News Rankings, supra n. 24.
29. ABA Sec. of Leg. Educ. and Admis. to the Bar, ABA-Approved Law Schools, available at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/aba_approved_law_schools/ in_alphabetical_order.html (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012) (hereinafter ABA-Approved Law Schools).
30. M. G. Gallagher Law Library, supra n. 18 and accompanying text.
31. For example, I included the International Review of Law & Economics, because it is published by Elsevier, a Dutch company, and edited by professors from law schools in Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Spain, and Canada in addition to many American law professors. Elsevier, International Review of Law & Economics: Editorial Board, available at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaleditorialboard.cws_home/525007/editorialboard (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012).
32. Compare, e.g., Title Page, 14 S.C. L.Q. [i], at [i] (1962) with Title Page, 15 S.C. L. Rev. [i], at [i] (1963) (reflecting the change of the South Carolina Law Quarterly to the current title as the South Carolina Law Review).
33. Compare, e.g., Title Page, 15 Sw. J. L. & Trade Ams. [i], at [i] (2008) with Title Page, 16 Sw. J. Intl L. [i], at [i] (2009) (reflecting the change of the Southwestern Journal of Law & Trade in the Americas to the current title as the Southwestern Journal of International Law).
34. HeinOnline, Title Lookup, available at http://www.HeinOnline.org (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012). If the journal is in Hein's database, Hein gives all of the prior titles of the journal.
35. M. G. Gallagher Law Library, supra n. 26.
36. W & L, Journals List, supra n. 27.
37. W & L, Journals List, supra n. 27, at http://lawlib.wlu.edu/lj/method.asp (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012).
38. Charles L. Black, Jr., Lawfulness of the Segregation Decisions, 69 Yale L.J. 421, 421 (1960).
39. Comment, Excluding from Evidence Fingerprints Taken after an Unlawful Arrest, 69 Yale L.J. 432, 432 (1960).
40. Comment, Using Government-Obtained Judgments to Prove the Conspiratorial Nature of Subsequent Refusals to Deal: The Joker in Private Antitrust Litigation, 69 Yale L.J. 462, 462 (1960).
41. Comment, Removal to Admiralty, 69 Yale L.J. 442, 442 (1960).
42. App A, List of Law Journals Indexed by CILP in 2010 with Initial Publication Date.
43. Michael I. Swygert & Jon W. Bruce, The Historical Origins, Founding, and Early Development of Student-Edited Law Reviews, 36. Hastings L.J. 715 (1985) (discussing the origins of nineteenth-century law journals).
44. Tracey E. George & Chris Guthrie, An Empirical Evaluation of Specialized Law Reviews, 26 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 813, 814-815 (1999) (stating that "[t]he first student-edited law reviews appeared briefly at the Albany Law School in 1875 and the Columbia Law School in 1885, but the Harvard Law School introduced the first successful law review in 1887. Other law schools soon followed suit, and by the turn of the century seven schools published generalist law reviews.").
45. Robert J. Spitzer, Saving the Constitution from Lawyers: How Legal Training and Law Reviews Distort Constitutional Meaning 37 (Cambridge U. Press 2008).
46. Swygert & Bruce, supra n. 49, at 727.
47. CILP indexed 191 general law reviews in 2010, and 200 law schools are ABA-approved. Only one school, Widener University, has more than one general law journal (the Widener Law Review and the Widener Law Journal). Two Puerto Rican and one American law schools' journals were not indexed (Pontifical Catholic of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico University, University of La Verne), and one law school, Northeastern University, only publishes a print law journal.
48. Michael L. Closen & Robert J. Dzielak, The History and Influence of the Law Review Institution, 30 Akron L. Rev. 15, 16 (1996) ("The articles in specialty law reviews are limited to addressing issues within the scope of that specialty law review.").
49. 1960: General Law Reviews = 85, Specialized Law Reviews = 3; 1970: General = 120, Specialized = 9; 1980: General = 151, Specialized = 16; 1990: General = 163, Specialized = 131; 2000: General = 173, Specialized = 256; 2010: General = 191, Specialized = 361. M. G. Gallagher Law Library, Current Index to Legal Periodicals (1960-2010).
50. George & Guthrie, supra n. 50, at 814.
51. 2011 U.S. News Rankings, supra n. 24; App. B infra, Law School Student-Edited Journals Indexed by CILP in 2010.
52. Dolores K. Sloviter, In Praise of Law Reviews, 75 Temp. L. Rev. 7, 12 (2002) ("With the multiplication of the number of student publications, often devoted to specialized areas of the law, law students who have not been selected for the school's premier law review or who have chosen not to apply will still be able to experience writing and editing on a student publication.");
53. James Lindgren, Reforming the American Law Review, 47 Stan. L. Rev. 1123, 1128 (1995) ("Students who are interested in a particular field generally know more about that field than other students. Specialization breeds competence.").
54. ABA Sec. of Leg. Admis. to the Bar, 1960 Review of Legal Education (ABA Press 1960).
55. ABA, Faculty Information by Gender, available at http://www.americanbar. org/content/dam/aba/migrated/legaled/statistics/charts/facultyinformationbygender.authcheckdam.pdf (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012). This number is composed of all tenured, tenure track, 405(c), and visiting full-time faculty members.
56. Closen & Dzielak, supra n. 54, at 40. ("[W]ith the need for law professors to publish while on the tenure track, many law review articles are written. Specialty law reviews have increased the space in which an author may find home for his or her article.").
57. Henry H. Perritt, Reassessing Professor Hibbitts' Requiem for Law Reviews, 30 Akron L. Rev. 255, 257 (1996) ("[L]aw student editors are likely to work much more cheaply than law faculty editors, and there is no such thing as a free lunch. There is no empirical support for the idea that the market would support law reviews at ten times or more the present price, and that surely represents the relative opportunity cost of law professors, who do a lot more writing than law students.").
58. Dan Hunter, Walled Gardens, 62 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 607, 633 (2004) (stating that "law reviews are the one of the public faces of the law school and provide an effective advertising medium for their school. Those schools high in the food chain use their law reviews to demonstrate how significant they are, by attracting the best articles from scholars in equivalently ranked schools.").
59. Lorenzo A. Trujillo, The Relationship Between Law School and the Bar Exam: A Look at Assessment and Student Success, 70 U. Colo. L. Rev. 69, 82 (2007) (proposing that a "high ranking in the U.S. News & World Report has numerous beneficial effects for a law school. For example, it helps with alumni contributions, gives satisfaction to the faculty, gives students a feeling that they are attending a superior school, and allows the school to attract new students of higher caliber.").
60. U.S. News & World Report, Law School Rankings Methodology, available at http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2011/03/14/law-school-rankings-methodology-2012 (stating that 0.40 of a law school's score is based on a "Quality Assessment" of the institution by its academic peers, lawyers, and judges).
61. Hunter, supra n. 63, at 633 (stating that "[s]chools lower in the rankings nowadays use the law review as a way of improving their perception among their alumni, the legal profession, and the public.").
62. Rocky Mt. L. Rev. → U. Colo. L. Rev. (1962); J. Pub. L. → Emory L.J. (1973); L. & Soc. Order → Ariz. St. L.J. (1973); N.Y. L. Forum → N.Y. L. Sch. L. Rev. (1976); Santa Clara Law. → Santa Clara L. Rev. (1975); Urb. L. Annual → Wash. U. J. Urb. & Contemp. L. (1982); Law. Ams. → U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. (1984); J. Fam. L. → U. Louisville L. Rev. (1993); Crim. Just. J. → San Diego Just. J. (1992) → Thomas Jefferson L. Rev. (1995); Conn. Prob. L.J. → Quinnipac Prob. L.J. (1996); Intl. Tax & Bus. Law. → Berkeley J. Intl. L. (1996); La Raza L.J. → Berkeley La Raza L.J. (2000); L. & Policy Intl. Bus. → Geo. J. Intl. L. (2003); J. Small & Emerging Bus. L., Intl. Leg. Persps. → Lewis & Clark L. Rev. (2004); Bankr. Dev. J. → Emory Bankr. Dev. J. (2004). HeinOnline, Title Lookup, http://www.HeinOnline.org (last accessed Jan. 23, 2012).
63. Lawrence M. Friedman, Looking Backward, Looking Forward: A Century of Legal Change, 28 Ind. L. Rev. 259, 266 (1995) ("Almost every law school administration today [1995] has reached the conclusion that one of the paths to eminence lies in publication of a law review.").
64. App B, Law School Student-Edited Journals Indexed by CILP 2010.
65. George & Guthrie, supra n. 50, at 818.
66. App B, Law School Student-Edited Journals Indexed by CILP in 2010.
67. ABA-Approved Law Schools, supra n. 31.
68. George & Guthrie, supra n. 50, at 818 (quoting Friedman, supra n. 68, 266 [1995]).
69. App C, 2010 CILP-Indexed Peer-Edited and Refereed Journals.
70. Lawrence B. Solum, Blogging and the Transformation of Legal Scholarship, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1071, 1079 (2006) (asserting that "law reviews have been increasingly supplanted by peer-review journals-although it is important not to overstate what is still a small exception to the general rule.").
71. Ross. P. Buckley, Stop the Blind from Leading the Sighted: A Proposal to Improve the Quality of U.S. Law Reviews, 33 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 97, 98 (2007) ("[Student law review] editors edit the articles excessively, seeking to improve the written expression, and they check every citation for substantive and formal accuracy. Both functions are questionably performed.").
72. Hon. Richard A. Posner, The Peer Review Experiment, 60 S.C. L. Rev. 821, 821 (2009).
73. App. C, CILP-Indexed Peer-Edited and Refereed Journals. The number of peer-edited and refereed journals listed in Table 1 relates to the titles indexed by CILP during that year. Figure 6 contains information relating to the titles indexed by CILP in 2010 and when those journals began to be published.