Law Reviews: Good for Judges, Bad for Law Schools?

Abstract

This article responds to Justice Kirby’s recent praise of law reviews. It will be argued that law reviews should be a matter of concern, both because of the questions that their use raises about the judiciary and for the problems that they cause for law schools. The increasing use of law review writing by judges, compared to the sparse use of this work by earlier generations, signifies a judiciary that is forsaking the common law tradition in favour of an openly instrumentalist style of judging. It also will be argued that law reviews have become the public face of an unpleasant and inappropriate form of academic life; one that degrades scholars, wastes valuable resources and devalues the importance of good teaching and collegiality in law schools.

Keywords: Justice Kirby, Law Reviews, Writing by judges, common law tradition

JEL Classification: K10, K40