Law Professor Blogger Census (Version 4.3)
posted by Daniel Solove
NEW VERSION 4.3
UPDATE: Thanks to Ian Best and a special thanks to Christine Hurt for pointing out a number of omissions. New tallies are below.
It’s time again for a new census of law professor bloggers. A lot has happened in the blogosphere since the last census (Version 3.1) was completed in November 2005.
Earlier Versions of the Census: In Version 2.0 (June 2005), there were 130 bloggers (28 female, 102 male), and schools with the largest number of bloggers included: San Diego (7), UCLA (5), George Mason (5), Cincinnati (4), Ohio State (4), GW (3), Georgetown (3), Stanford (3), St. Thomas (3), Chapman (3), Villanova (3).
In Version 3.1 (November 2005), there were 202 bloggers (50 female, 152 male), and schools with the largest number of bloggers included: Chicago (14); UCLA (7); San Diego (7); GW (5); Cincinnati (5); George Mason (5); Stanford (4); Northwestern (4); Ohio State (4); U.C. Davis (4); American (4); Case Western (4); St. John’s (4).
NEW VERSION 4.3 STATS:
Number: There are 235 law professor bloggers.
Growth: Since the last census in November 2005, the number of bloggers has grown by 33 bloggers — from 202 to 235 — an increase of about 16%.
Additions and Subtractions: : There were several bloggers who departed the blogosphere. In all, I counted 14 departed bloggers. There were 47 new bloggers, resulting in a net gain of 33.
Gender: Of the bloggers, 58 are female and 177 are male. Thus, about 25% are female and 75% are male. These are roughly the same percentages as in the last census. Female bloggers increased by 14% and male bloggers increased by 16%.
Schools: Schools with the most bloggers include:
Chicago (15)
San Diego (7)
GW (6)
Illinois (6)
UCLA (6)
George Mason (5)
William Mitchell (5)
Illinois, it seems, is placing its bets on bloggers. It has recently hired several bloggers as laterals – including Christine Hurt and Lawrence Solum – and is home to the well-known blogger Larry Ribstein.
There were quite a few schools with 4 bloggers, including American, Case Western, Cardozo, Cincinnati, Cornell, U.C. Davis, Georgetown, Lewis & Clark, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Stanford, St. John’s, and Temple.
Please note: I have listed professors whose lateral moves have been announced (see here) with their new institutions.
Schools in the U.S. News Top 20 rankings account for 67 bloggers
1. Yale (3)
2. Harvard (3)
3. Stanford (4)
4. Columbia (1)
5. NYU (1)
6. Chicago (16)
7. Pennsylvania (0)
8. Michigan (4)
8. Virginia (3)
10. Northwestern (4)
11. Cornell (4)
11. Duke (2)
11. Berkeley (0)
14. Georgetown (4)
15. UCLA (6)
15. Texas (3)
17. Vanderbilt (1)
18. USC (0)
19. Minnesota (2)
20. Boston University (0)
20. George Washington (6)
Bloggers from the Top 20 increased from 61 to 67, an increase of about 10%. The Top 20 schools have a disproportionately large representation in the blogosphere — roughly a third (30%) of the total number of bloggers (230). Only 4 schools in the Top 20 have no bloggers – Berkeley, Pennsylvania, USC, and Boston University.
In the chart that follows, I indicate new bloggers with NEW.
March 15, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Posted in: Law Professor Blogger Census
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Responses (18)
Ken - March 14, 2006 at 10:36 pm
You need to delete Supreme Court Extra, as no one has posted there since early December. It’s totally dead.
Daniel J. Solove - March 14, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Ken — Thank you. I overlooked this. I have made the appropriate modifications to the post.
Paul M. Secunda - March 14, 2006 at 11:35 pm
Dan: Art Leonard of New York Law School just launched a new law-related blog called “Leonard Link,” which focuses on Sexuality and the Law. The URL is http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/.
Best, Paul
Jason - March 15, 2006 at 8:34 am
Kevin Jon Heller hasn’t posted at Yin Blog in, at least, months. I’d inquire as to whether he’s still considered an author there.
Jason - March 15, 2006 at 8:35 am
I should have noted in the last comment – Eben Moglen’s blog looks abandoned. No posts since 8/05.
Carlos - March 15, 2006 at 8:46 am
Great census. I’m linking your list from my website.
BTW, I could not find anything related to the copyright of your website, so i’m guessing i can just quote little bits, right?
ps: I’m from Chile, so i do know about fair use, but not enough.
ambivalent bits - March 15, 2006 at 11:22 am
Law Professor Blogger Census (Version 4.1)
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/03/law_professor_b_4.html#more There are 225 law professor bloggers. I didn’t realize GW had six of them!
greglas - March 15, 2006 at 11:31 am
Dan,
First, thanks for putting this update together (my RSS is getting unwieldy, but it’s a good thing).
Second, there’s a new blogger at Rutgers-Camden:
http://mikelivingston.blogspot.com/
Third, I’m on hiatus from Terra Nova — I’m happy to be associated with TN, but I’m not an official “author” there these days.
Ann Bartow - March 15, 2006 at 5:51 pm
I’m not sure what the standard for who a blogger is is, but Bridget Crawford, Marina Angel and Stephanie Farrior have all been actively posting at Feminist Law Professors.
ambimb - March 15, 2006 at 11:47 pm
This is a fascinating little study — thanks for putting it together. Could you tell us anything about your methodology? Do you just keep a list and try to stay on top of additions and subtractions, or…? I’m just wondering if this is going to scale.
Speaking of the growth of the legal academic blogosphere, PrawfsBlawg put forth a few theories last fall, and Orin Kerr chipped in with another.
Daniel J. Solove - March 15, 2006 at 11:54 pm
ambimb — nothing special about my methodology. I just try to stay on top of additions and subtractions. Obviously, if the law professor blogosphere increases dramatically, it will be hard to keep up. But right now, I’m able to stay on top of it with the help of others who chime in with additions and subtractions.
Elmer Masters - March 17, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Daniel,
You may want to take a look at http://www.classcaster.org/. I’ve got a couple of dozen law faculty blogging and podcasting their courses on the system. Classcaster is a CALI (http://www.cali.org) service that is open to all faculty and staff of CALI member schools.
Thanks.
Wlodek - March 19, 2006 at 3:08 am
David Friedman from Santa Clara University School of Law has a brand new blog at – http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Wlodek - March 19, 2006 at 3:10 am
David Friedman from Santa Clara University School of Law has a brand new blog at – http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Jim Maule - March 20, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Dan,
A fairly new blog by Prof. Michelle Anderson of Villanova: No Rape URL: http://norape.blogspot.com/
From her description: Villanova law professor Michelle J. Anderson analyzes the legal and social issues surrounding rape and sexual assault and devises strategies to bring these practices to an end.
Thanks for doing this census.
Jim Maule
Dave Hoffman - March 20, 2006 at 11:56 pm
The Anderson blog definitely belongs – I’ve been reading it regularly.
I’ve also heard that another member of the Temple law faculty will be permanently joining a major blog, as of next week. But I’ll let them announce it.
Daniel J. Solove - March 21, 2006 at 12:00 am
Since most of the discussion of the census has already occurred with the current stats, I’m closing out this round and beginning to gather information for the next version of the census (Version 5.0). Accordingly, I’ll list the Anderson blog as well as others in that version.
Please feel free to continue to post or email additions or subtractions to the census, and they will definitely be incorporated — but in the next iteration.
Francisco J. Estrada - April 24, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Congratulations for your work.
I’ve got in Chile these blogs about juvenile justice and family law:
About juvenile justicie in spanish’s world:
http://justiciapenaladolescente.blogspot.com/
About a lessons of family law
http://cursoderechodefamilia.blogspot.com/
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