To the Edge: Legality, Legitimacy, and the Responses to the 2008 Financial Crisis
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LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL
110 Lest I give the erroneous impression that Stolker would do away with legal
scholarship in favor of total devotion to the teaching of law, the sixth chapter dis-
cusses the importance of legal scholarship, describing our need for its creativity
and close monitoring and critique of developments in the law. The author divides
legal scholarship into three perspectives: analytical, empirical, and normative;
describes the pros and cons of each; and notes the trends in legal research through-
out the world (e.g., while in the United States we are seeing a rise in empirical legal
research, scholars in Europe tend toward doctrinal legal research). The discussion
of legal research changes somewhat in chapter 7, focusing on how legal research is
produced, comparing law journals to journals in other disciplines, and comparing
the often confounding concept of the student-run law journal in U.S. law schools
to the systems in other countries, which range from peer-reviewed to student-run
with heavy scholarly oversight. Stolker notes and encourages the move toward
open access to legal scholarship, stating that only through such a move can we hope
to make law a truly global discipline. (This is the portion of the book where law
librarians factor the most as well, with Stolker praising the work of academic law
librarians in authoring the Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholar-
ship.'7) The book concludes with a look at the governance of law schools and how
to encourage and foster creativity in legal education and scholarship.
1111 If you are looking to examine global trends in legal education, this book is a
great asset, whether you seek to read it all or to focus on a specific chapter. Read as a
whole, the book starts out a bit slow, concentrating on the place of the law school in
the university and discussing challenges that face modern universities today. It really
picks up speed once you get to chapter 4 and all subsequent chapters; it is at this point
that Stolker begins to focus on individual aspects of law school and legal education,
from pedagogy to scholarship to governance and fostering creativity. While none of
the topics addressed are particularly new (greater importance placed on research than
teaching, inflexibility of teaching styles, treating students as consumers or stakehold-
ers), seeing these familiar topics discussed on a global scale, noting both our similari-
ties and our differences, provides a unique and fascinating perspective. By comparing
and contrasting legal education in nations around the world, and by understanding
the values placed on legal education in legal systems other than our own, we may find
ourselves better able to appreciate, embrace, and pass on the values of our own insti-
tutions to the students who will take these ideals into the world.
Wallach, Philip A. To the Edge: Legality, Legitimacy, and the Responses to the 2008
Financial Crisis. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2015. 319p.
$34.
Reviewed by Kristen M. Hallows*
¶112 Why can lawful actions be viewed as dubious while extralegal steps are
heartily endorsed? This is precisely what Philip A. Wallach sets out to determine in
his introduction to and survey of the divergence of law and legitimacy in times of
crisis.
17. Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship, https://cyber.law.harvard.edu
Ipublications/durhamstatement (last updated Feb. 1, 2012) [https://perma.cc/JBD8-VHUY].
* @ Kristen M. Hallows, 2016. Research Librarian, Bricker & Eckler LLP, Columbus, Ohio.
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To the Edge: Legality, Legitimacy, and the Responses to the 2008 Financial Crisis
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