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47 Stan. L. Rev. 1123 (1994-1995)
Reforming the American Law Review

handle is hein.journals/stflr47 and id is 1149 raw text is: Reforming the American Law Review
James Lindgren*
The law review reform movement is coming of age. As this symposium
attests, at least the targets of our criticism are beginning to listen. I used to hear
almost nothing but complaints about student editing. Over the last two years, I
have begun to hear some positive stories sprinkled among the bad ones. A few
reviews have even written or called me to say that they have changed their
policies in response to our criticisms. Since the Law Review Conference at
Stanford in late February, professors have told me more positive law review
stories than negative ones. I think that law review editors, particularly the ones
who attended the Conference at Stanford, have begun to get the point.
In 1990, shortly after three ugly experiences with law reviews, I decided
that I had had enough. Something needed to be done. I recognized that those
of us unhappy with law reviews must face the monster that our predecessors
created. We owed an obligation to legal education and to legal scholarship. Of
course, I was neither the first nor the last law professor to join the struggle.'
Richard Posner, like a few others, had long before turned his dissatisfaction2
into concrete action, founding the most successful new law journal in the last
thirty years, the Journal of Legal Studies.3 Moreover, Posner has supported the
reform style book for law review citation, the University of Chicago Manual of
Legal Citation.4
I decided that we critics must think and act more systematically to fix
what's broken. I first attacked the law review practice that I was least sympa-
* Visiting Professor, University of Texas School of Law (spring 1995); Norman & Edna Freeh-
ling Scholar and Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law; Ph.D. student (sociology), University
of Chicago; J.D., 1977, University of Chicago; B.A., 1974, Yale University. I would like to thank the
extremely kind and able organizers of the Law Review Conference, particularly Adam Rosman, Phoebe
Yang, Lisa Kern, and Kevin Heller. Their generosity and patience are memorable. I also thank West
Publishing for funding the Conference and the Marshall D. Ewell Research Fund for general support.
1. See, e-g., Ann Althouse, Who's to Blame for Law Reviews?, 70 Cin.-K, rr L. REv. 81 (1994);
Arthur D. Austin, The Custom of Vetting as a Substitute for Peer Review, 32 ARiz. L. Rsv. 1 (1990);
Richard A. Epstein, Faculty-Edited Law Journals, 70 Cix.-Kmn L. REv. 87 (1994); Erik M. Jensen, The
Law Review Manuscript Glut. The Need for Guidelines, 39 J. LEOAL EDUC. 383 (1989); Kenneth Las-
son, Scholarship Amok: Excesses in the Pursuit of Truth and Tenure, 103 HARV. L. Rav. 926 (1991);
Gregory E. Maggs, Just Say No?. 70 Cm.-KmEr L. REv. 101 (1994); Fred Rodell, Goodbye to Law
Reviews, 23 VA. L. REv. 38 (1936); Fred Rodell, Goodbye to Law Reviews-Revisited, 48 VA. L. Rav.
279 (1962); Mark Tushnet, Legal Scholarship: Its Causes and Cures, 90 YALE L.J. 1205 (1981).
2. See e.g., Richard A. Posner, Goodbye to the Bluebook 53 U. Cn. L. Rv. 1343 (1986).
3. The first issue was published in 1972. The JLS is now one of the 20 most-cited American law
reviews. 1991 INsrUrTE FOR Sc rNmc INFORMATION, SOCIAL ScI-NCES CITATION IiNEx: JoURmNAL
CrrATIoN REPoRTs (1992).
4. UwEivsrrv oF CmcAGo MANUAL OF LEOAL CTATION (The University of Chicago Law Re-
view & The University of Chicago Legal Forum eds., 1989).

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