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44 J. Legal Educ. 6 (1994)
Improving the Law Review Model: A Case in Point

handle is hein.journals/jled44 and id is 16 raw text is: Improving the Law Review Model: A Case in Point David M. Richardson Given the plethora of law reviews, it might be argued that a moratorium on any new ones would be in the public interest. Nonetheless, after several years of study, the tax faculty at the University of Florida College of Law decided two years ago that there was a place for a new review dealing with issues of tax law and policy-if the new review solved some of the fundamental problems with traditional law reviews. We therefore designed the Florida Tax Review to be a refereed, faculty-edited journal, which uses blind reviewing and which pub- lishes a manuscript soon after acceptance. Each of these characteristics re- sponds to a perceived inadequacy of traditional reviews, and together they describe an improved law review model that is both friendly to authors and mindful of the reasonable expectations of subscribers. The twelfth and last issue of the first volume of the Florida Tax Review was published in February 1994; now we are working on the second issue of the second volume. The purpose of this article is to provide tax law scholars-and anyone who might consider modifying an existing law review or establishing a new one-some insight into how and why this specialty review was created.' DavidM. Richardson is Professor of Law, University of Florida, and editor of the Florida TaxRetiew. He thanks Professors George R. Yin and Michael K. Friel for commenting on a draft of this article. 1. Much has been written about the problems of traditional, student-edited law reviews. See, e.g.,Jordan H. Leibman &James P. White, How the Student-Edited LawJournals Make Their Publication Decisions, 39J. Legal Educ. 387, 417-25 (1989). But see Elyce H. Zenoff, I Have Seen the Enemy and They Are Us, 36 J. Legal Educ. 21 (1986) (suggesting that those who write law review articles are more to blame than student editors for problems of law reviews). Those who would retain the student-run law review model generally place high value on the educational experience of such reviews and, at the same time, question the willingness of faculty members to assume a greater role in the distribution of legal scholarship. See John PaulJones, In Praise of Student-Edited Law Reviews: A Reply to Professor Dekanal, 57 UMKC L. Rev. 241 (1989). Those who would adopt the faculty-run model, characteristic ofjournals in other academic fields, suggest that the interests of legal scholarship are best served if both the selection and editing of accepted manuscripts are performed by faculty members. See, e.g., Roger C. Cramton, 'The Most Remarkable Institution: The American Law Review, 36J. Legal Educ. 1, 8 (1986); John G. Rester, Faculty Participation in the Student-Edited Law Review, 36J. Legal Educ. 14 (1986). But see Paul D. Carrington, The Dangers of the Graduate School Model, 36J. Legal Educ. 11 (1986);John Henry Schlegel, An Endangered Species? 36J. Legal Educ. 18, 19 (1986). Some who recognize the problems with student-run law reviews would seek a middle ground to preserve the traditional model but increase faculty participation. See, e.g., Afton Dekanal, Faculty-Edited Law Reviews: Should the Law Schools Join the Rest ofAcademe? 57 UMKG L. Rev. 233 (1989). Journal of Legal Education, Volume 44, Number 1 (March 1994)

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