A review of the Internet’s best law journals and law reviews.
By Erik J. Heels
First published 1/2/1997; Martindale.com “Legal Links”; publisher: Martindale-Hubbell
There are several good indices of Web sites that contain the full text of scholarly legal publications – law reviews and law journals. The best of these is FindLaw’s law review index. And even though the majority or law reviews do not publish in full text on the Web, I remain an optimist and prefer to focus on the fact that many of them do. In fact, one of them, the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT), was the fist law review to publish exclusively online: on the Web, Westlaw, and Lexis-Nexis. (And, in the name of full disclosure, I should mention that JOLT’s original editor, Richard P. Klau, now works for Inherent.Com.) Like Richmond, those law schools that established a law review Web presence early on now have many more sites linking to them that those that started “late.” This explains why, according to Infoseek, 1237 sites link to the Cornell NASDAQ publication, even though that publication hasn’t been updated in over two years. (See my December 1996 column for more information on my selection methodology.) Of course, we are still in the early days of the Web, and I expect more innovations in the legal/Internet community in the coming weeks and months. Enjoy, and see you on the Net!
1. NASDAQ Financial Executive Journal. Interesting from a historical perspective. Only five issues were published, and none have been published since the summer of 1994. But since this was published in the very early days of the Web, many other sites have since linked to it. Plus the content is fascinating. You can even hear a sound clip from Marc Andreesen before he left the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) to form a startup company called Netscape. (http://www.law.cornell.edu/nasdaq/nasdtoc.html)
2. Federal Communications Law Journal. Published by the Indiana University School of law, Bloomington, and the Federal Communications Bar Journal. Nine issues are online (12-93 – 06-96), and a basic search engine is included. (http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/fclj.html)
3. Richmond Journal of Law & Technology. The fist law review to publish exclusively online: on the Web, Westlaw, and Lexis-Nexis. Under “About the Journal” you’ll find information about the Coalition of Online Law Journals, which is working to develop standards (including footnoting, citing to the online versions of other journals, and formatting) for this medium. (http://www.urich.edu/~jolt/)
4. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. Published by the Indiana University School of law, Bloomington. A faculty-edited interdisciplinary journal with six issues (fall 1993 – spring 1996) online. (http://www.law.indiana.edu/glsj/glsj.html)
5. Web Journal of Current Legal Issues. Published at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, in association with Blackstone Press Ltd. The Journal focuses on current legal issues in judicial decisions, law reform, legislation, legal research, policy-related socio-legal research, legal information, information technology and practice. This site has the most polished and professional presentation of any on this list. (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~nlawwww/)
6. Cornell Law Review. Only two issues are online, but because it is published by Cornell (which, in many cases, appears to have been publishing on the Web before there was a Web!), lots of other sites link to it. (http://www.law.cornell.edu/clr/clr.htm)
7. The Villanova Information Law Chronicle. It’s unclear whether this is a Web-ified law review or a running collection of articles. But what is clear is that the articles, notes, and news cover all the hot information law topics, from placing court opinions on the Net to computer crime. Plus you can have the documents delivered to you by fax. (http://www.law.vill.edu/vill.info.l.chron/)
8. The National Journal of Sexual Orientation Law. One of two law reviews devoted exclusively to legal issues affecting lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. (http://sunsite.unc.edu/gaylaw/)
9. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Published by Duke University. Eight issues and a 20-year index (by author and subject) are online. (http://www.pitt.edu/~jhppl/jhppl.html)
10. Franklin Pierce Law Center. Transcripts of a series of discussions by Professor Thomas G. Field, Jr., on all aspects of intellectual property law. Written to meet the needs of artists, independent inventors, Internet authors and artists, programmers, and small business owners. (http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/order.htm)
