Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

4-26-2007

SSRN Discipline

Economics Research Network; Legal Scholarship Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Public Law & Legal Theory; ERN Subject Matter eJournals

Abstract

This short contribution to the Connecticut Law Reviews new online supplement CONNtemplations offers some thoughts on status and gatekeeping in the online age of legal scholarship Bloggers SSRN and online law review supplements like this one have increasingly routed around and weakened if not undermined the traditional gatekeepers who certified legal scholars and their scholarship Is this a good thing The paper proceeds by examining this question in light of a pair of opposing views and values The first is Julius Getmans discussion of the eternal tension between elitism and egalitarianism in the life of the scholar The second is a pair of comments on the role of blogs and other online media in legal scholarship a positive and optimistic comment by Larry Solum and a more pessimistic and critical view presented by Brian Leiter Ultimately I tend to agree with Solums optimistic view the online age has provided new thinkers and writers with multiple routes around the old gatekeepers and this development should be welcomed At the same time I suggest candidly that many legal scholars who have benefited from blogs and other online media including myself have used those new media to seek certification and enhanced status from the same traditional gatekeepers that we have criticized In Getmans terms we have talked egalitarianism and done elitism The old tension continues I link this tension to a variety of broader phenomena the insecurity of the legal academic the legal academys increasing fixation with rankings and the economy of prestige

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