In Search of Helpful Legal Scholarship, Part 2: Shall We Dance

Abstract:     
In the last issue of the Journal of Law I said, “In Part 2 of this paper I will either celebrate the launch of an amicus briefs of scholarship program by the AALS or JOTWELL or some other worthy entity, or I will outline a plan that might be used by some other fearless and energetic souls.” I have not heard from the AALS or JOTWELL. So, here is an outline of a plan that might be used by some other fearless or energetic souls to make legal scholarship more helpful to members of the Supreme Court, and maybe other people too. The plan has four main parts: (1) polling about helpful scholarship (starting now); (2) polling about conventional scholars’ amicus briefs (starting sometime soon); (3) amicus briefs of scholarship (starting someday); and (4) a cumulative roster of scholarly amici (also start-ing sometime soon but perhaps not quite so soon). There will inevitably be tinkering along the way, but I do hope that what follows below is the start of something helpful, and scholarly. This little article deals with part 1 of the plan: polling about helpful scholarship. More on the other parts later.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 11

Keywords: Antonin Scalia, Brian Leiter, Bryan Garner, Frederick Hicks, Gerard Magliocca, Green Bag, John Roberts, Richard Matasar, Robert Berring, Ronald Coase

JEL Classification: A20, C72, C80, C93, D70, D71, D72, H10, H11, H50, H83, I20, I21, I28, I29, K00, K20, K40, K41, L32

Accepted Paper Series