Planned New Faculty-Supervised Independent Law Journal

Prof. Paul Robinson (Penn), a top criminal law scholar, is leading this project, and I think it’s an excellent idea. I think we should have more faculty-supervised law journals, though I think there’s also merit in student-edited law journals—having a mix of editorial structures may be better than having all be one or all be the other. (Indeed, the structure of this journal looks like it would be different from that of some other faculty-run journals, such as our Journal of Free Speech Law, but there too I think it’s good to have different journals experimenting with different models.)

In any event, the Independent Law Journal is still in its planning stages, but if you’re a law professor, legal scholar, or judge who supports the ILJ’s mission, please get in touch with the ILJ folks. Here’s the Journal’s announcement, from Prof. Robinson:

Help Us Improve Publishing in Legal Academia

Legal academia is unique among academic fields in that publishing is largely controlled by graduate students through the law review system. While this saves faculty time, it also leads to numerous downsides when third-year law students guide scholarship in topics they barely know. Students on law review tend to be both less knowledgeable and more ideologically extreme than their professors. The result is a system that struggles to recognize good scholarship and penalizes pieces that differ from the current academic mainstream. Nobody benefits when free debate is suppressed, publications are siloed by ideology, and editors making publishing decisions simply don’t know enough to determine an article’s contribution to the literature.

To help foster high-quality publishing and free and robust debate in legal academia, a number of law professors from top schools are working together to start a new publication—the Independent Law Journal. All articles published in the Journal will be peer-approved by a faculty board, but student staff will still handle most of the Journal‘s operations and will collaborate with faculty in initial article selection. The Journal‘s mission statement is as follows:

The Independent Law Journal (ILJ) is a forum for independent-minded law professors, students, and professionals to publish scholarly articles, including pieces that conflict with current academic mainstream thought. The Journal is committed to free speech, freedom from ideological discrimination, and fostering robust scholarly debate across a wide range of viewpoints. In keeping with this mission, the Journal is overseen by a board of distinguished and ideologically varied legal scholars. It is staffed by independent-minded law students drawn from America’s top law schools and selected for their academic excellence. As a nationwide scholar-led, peer-approved, and student-staffed journal, the Independent Law Journal brings together current and future legal experts to publish groundbreaking ideas. The Journal aims to provide a space for conversation across the ideological spectrum and believes that progress is often made through disagreement and that truth often emerges from debate.

It is worth stressing that the ILJ is not a conservative journal (of which there are already several) but a non-partisan one committed to publishing equally from left, right, and center. Nobody benefits from groupthink, and the Journal will work hard to prevent itself from becoming an echo chamber.

We are currently enlisting public supporters for the ILJ to give it maximum credibility and reach in legal academia. We are encouraged by the support we have received so far from many prominent legal scholars who span the ideological spectrum (including support from this blog’s own Eugene Volokh). If you are a law professor, legal scholar, or judge who supports the ILJ’s mission, we would love to list you as a public supporter (the time commitment is zero). And even if you don’t fall into one of those categories, we still value your support and hope you will spread the word about the ILJ and keep it in mind if you are ever publishing a piece of legal scholarship. Our primary faculty contact for supporters is Paul H. Robinson (phr@law.upenn.edu).

You can find more details about how the ILJ will operate on our (developing) website here. Support, suggestions, and constructive criticism are all welcome. If you value high-quality scholarship, free and robust debate, or think the law review system needs improvement in other ways, we hope you will join us in making this new journal a success.

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