Why There Should Be Fewer Articles Like This One: Law Professors Should Write More for Legal Decision-Makers and Less for Themselves
![handle is hein.journals/sufflr38 and id is 777 raw text is: Why There Should Be Fewer Articles Like This One: Law
Professors Should Write More for Legal Decision-Makers and
Less for Themselves
David Hricik & Victoria S. Salzmann*
Copyright © 2005 David Hricik & Victoria S. Salzmann
I. INTRODUCTION
Today we step into an important and often heated debate about the role of
law schools in legal education. Some say that law professors should impart less
knowledge about doctrine and more about policy and broader social issues,
while others decry the declining place that doctrine and issues of importance to
the profession hold in law school. One part of that broader debate is the role of
legal scholarship: should law professors write for lawyers and judges, or
should lawyers and judges-but not law professors-address the concerns of
the profession?
These are important issues that divide the legal academy and evoke strong
feelings and beliefs on all sides. This Article addresses the question of legal
scholarship and the role that law professors should play in publishing articles
that matter to judges, lawyers, and other legal decision-makers. Much of the
pertinent literature incorrectly assumes that law professors are in no better
position than lawyers or judges to write engaged scholarship (a term defined
with care below). Instead, not only do law professors have a unique capacity to
provide this form of scholarship, they have an obligation to do so.
Law professors occupy a unique position in the profession. The American
Association of Law Schools (AALS) notes that [t]he fact that a law
professor's income does not depend on serving the interests of private clients
permits a law professor to take positions on issues as to which practicing
* David Hricik is an Assistant Professor of Law at Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law.
He received a J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law in 1988 and a B.A., with high
honors, from the University of Arizona in 1984. Professor Hricik thanks Visiting Professor Colleen Hartman
Tillett and Professor Adam Milani for commenting on early drafts. Finally, he thanks Kim Jones and the law
firm of Yetter & Warden, L.L.P. for their assistance. The authors note that their names are listed
alphabetically-each contributed equally to this Article.
Victoria S. Salzmann is an Assistant Professor of Law at Mercer University Walter F. George School
of Law. She received a J.D., cum laude, from Baylor University School of Law in 1999, a M.S. from Baylor
University in 1996, and a B.S. from Baylor University in 1994. She would like to thank Amanda Kjellen for
her extensive and cheerful research and Professor Linda Edwards for her invaluable comments. Professor
Salzmann would also like to thank her husband, Dennis Salzmann, for his insight and support.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/sufflr38&div=49&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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