Hierarchies of Legal Scholarship
posted by Daniel Solove
J.B. Ruhl recently came out with his hierarchy of legal scholarship, ranking types of articles from 0 to 10. His hierarchy has generated a ton of controversy (see here, here, and here). Here’s his ranking:
0 – Blog posts
1 – Publication of what are essentially blog posts with footnotes
2 – Doctrinal review of the state of the law
3 – Doctrinal study of interesting questions of law
4 – Doctrinal synthesis of developments in law
5 – Normative policy analysis of law
6 – Normative policy analysis of law with substantial reform proposals
7 – Legal theory
8 – “Law and” interdisciplinary studies
9 – Empirical study of legal institutions
10 – Empirical study of law’s impact on society
Now, in playful mockery of Ruhl’s hierarchy, Eric Muller has created another hierarchy of legal scholarship. A small taste:
2 – Work in my field that totally ought to cite my work but fails to do so
3 – First novels by professors at Yale Law School
4 – Student-written work by me
5 – Work that cites my work
Hat tip: Above the Law
September 27, 2006 at 12:01 am
Posted in: Humor, Law School (Scholarship)
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Responses (1)
Mr. K - September 26, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Where does “Work by me that cites my work” fit in? Or “Work by me that cites my student-written work”?
You know who you are…
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