Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

4-13-2006

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; Experimental & Empirical Studies eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Public Law & Legal Theory; IRPN Subject Matter eJournals; Innovation Areas eJournals; Innovation Research & Policy Network

Abstract

The release of the 2007 US News rankings of law schools has set off another round of speculation on the meanings of the rankings and what if anything schools can do to improve the quality of the education they provide as well as their rankings Drawing upon earlier evidence that there is a close connection between the citation rankings of law reviews and the ranking of their law schools this paper looks to changes in both the US News rankings and law journal rankings over the past few years Moreover there is a connection though relatively weak between law reviews that are improving and law schools that are improving This paper tests and finds some support for a hypothesis that as law schools improve or decline there is a corresponding improvement in the quality of their main law journals as measured by citations in other journals Thus if you want to know where a law school is heading in addition to the glossy material that the school sends out to announce new hires student successes faculty publications and talks sponsored by the school one should spend some time studying the scholarship their law review publishes A final table ranks the main law journals of 178 ABA accredited law schools according to journal citations

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