Look around the blogosphere in American academia and you will see debate, discussion and also perceive a feeling of anarchic creation. Among legal academics the Alito nomination to the Supreme Court (now confirmed) caused opinions to fly all over. It's wonderful to see the conversations.
Over the pond, we haven't caught on quite so quickly, yet. For me, blogging is a recent venture, but one that is liberating and rapid. I think everyone should do it, especially academics! Recently I saw the University of Chicago Law School Blog which discusses the issues of the day and also announces events and so on at the school. It's a collective enterprise and that in my view adds to its power.
Seeing it prompted me to imagine the University of Westminster Law School Blog. Today I emailed my colleagues with the idea. I've had two sorts of response. Those that think it great and those who are more cautious, raising the question of what would the university think and even its impact on freedom of information requests. I am going to wait a little longer for responses to see which way they go. My suspicion is that quite a number will wonder what it's all about and they won't respond. That's all right. As to the rest, may the force of the blog be with you.
There's lots going on that would engage legal academics. For example, the role of police commissioners vis-a-vis the press (who's institutionally racist now?); the proposed reforms of company law being challenged in parliament; the resurrection of the EU constitution; travelling to Switzerland for an assisted death; the reform of the legal profession, and many more. These are things that we might want to write learned articles on, but sometimes one has to make a quick response that can't wait for journal timelines.
I wonder how we will resolve this?
Over the pond, we haven't caught on quite so quickly, yet. For me, blogging is a recent venture, but one that is liberating and rapid. I think everyone should do it, especially academics! Recently I saw the University of Chicago Law School Blog which discusses the issues of the day and also announces events and so on at the school. It's a collective enterprise and that in my view adds to its power.
Seeing it prompted me to imagine the University of Westminster Law School Blog. Today I emailed my colleagues with the idea. I've had two sorts of response. Those that think it great and those who are more cautious, raising the question of what would the university think and even its impact on freedom of information requests. I am going to wait a little longer for responses to see which way they go. My suspicion is that quite a number will wonder what it's all about and they won't respond. That's all right. As to the rest, may the force of the blog be with you.
There's lots going on that would engage legal academics. For example, the role of police commissioners vis-a-vis the press (who's institutionally racist now?); the proposed reforms of company law being challenged in parliament; the resurrection of the EU constitution; travelling to Switzerland for an assisted death; the reform of the legal profession, and many more. These are things that we might want to write learned articles on, but sometimes one has to make a quick response that can't wait for journal timelines.
I wonder how we will resolve this?
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