Recent HLS hire Cass Sunstein is blogging today at the Volokh Conspiracy about the “libertarian paternalism.” Lots of comments - join the conversation. 

If you’re considering a career in the legal academy, TaxProfBlog has posted an updated list of fellowships for aspiring law professors. 

HLS has the largest number of different programs listed, with seven.  (Woo hoo, one more than Yale or NYU!!) The post, by Univ. of Cincinnati Associate Dean Paul Caron, also includes a number of links to useful information about becoming a law professor.

Got room for one more RSS feed?  “Convictions” is a new blog on legal topics sponsored by Slate, the online magazine. 

According to Slate’s press release, the blog aims to “post immediate reactions to legal cases and headlines,” and offer “an accessible source for legal discourse from a wide-range of qualified experts.”

The all-star cast of bloggers includes HLS’s own David Barron and Boston-based federal district judge Nancy Gertner.  Other bloggers reportedly include Slate writers Dahlia Lithwick, Phil Carter, and Emily Bazelon, journalists Ben Wittes and Rosa Brooks, Deb Perlstein of Human Rights First, Professors Viet Dinh and Marty Lederman of Georgetown Law, Doug Kmiec from Pepperdine Law, Jack Balkin and Kenji Yoshino form Yale, Eric Posner of Univ. of Chicago Law, Richard Ford of Stanford, former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger of Duke, Diane Amann of Boalt Hall, Dawn Johnsen of Indiana, Orin Kerr of GW, Tim Wu of Columbia, former public defender David Feige of Seton Hall and law firm associate Adam J. White.  Right now, posts seem to be focused on Heller, but the range of topics seems to be wide open - and based on the bloggers involved, discussion should remain lively.  Warning: At least some of the posts seem to be culled from other blogs, so you may experience a moment or two of deja vu. 

Here’s two interesting postings about such a correlation at law schools.  First Volokh.  And this from PrawfsBlawg.  You have from now until May to figure this out.

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy you see a posting on how many times it has been cited in the JLR database. 

Using their search parameters I limited the results to those journals with Harvard in the title.  There are seven, the most recent of which was from the Harvard Law Review: “Posting of Einer Elhauge to The Volokh Conspiracy, http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_05_ 20-2007_05_26.shtml#1179785703 (May 21, 2007, 6:15 PM).” Volokh goes on to discuss the merits of citing to blogs.  One commenter also noted that JLR produced results (not citations, just results) limited by year for “britney spears”: 31 results, 2007; 31 results, 2006; 47 results, 2005; 38 results, 2004; 33 results, 2003; 28 results, 2002; 16 results, 2001; 11 results, 2000; 0 results, 1999 (the year ...Baby One More Time was released).

A recent case note (121 Harv. L. Rev. 275 (Nov. 2007) is causing a stir over at the Volokh Conspiracy.

The Legal Scholarship Blog is managed by faculty and staff at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the Gallagher Law Library of the University of Washington School of Law, and features Law-related Call for Papers, Conferences, and Workshops as well as general legal scholarship resources. This blog seeks to facilitate the legal academy’s development and dissemination of scholarship, and so does not feature events such as Continuing Legal Education programs or regional bar association meetings.

The ABA Journal has named its latest list of the Blawg 100. There are between 2,000 and 3,000 legal blogs—what we call blawgs. How many of those are worth a click? Turns out, quite a few.

At Balkinization, Brian Tamanaha shares his skepticism about Brian Leiter’s citation rankings. 

When a blog entry generates over fifty immediate response comments, it is a pretty good sign that the post has touched on a hot issue—but parallel citation formatting according to Bluebook style, who would have guessed!

The value of all those extra citations in the era of web access to case law seems to have touched the nerve of readers of the Volokh Conspiracy.  Check out what readers of this first rate blog have to say about U.S., S. Ct., and L.Ed. 

What’s the difference between “semantic originalism” and “normative originalism?” In an excellent demonstration of how blogs can facilitate the development of legal ideas, bloggers of all stripes, from Balkinization to the Volokh Conspiracy, are having a fascinating discussion on originalism.  Why not get in on the conversation?  Brian Leiter’s post on Legal Philosophy Blog, inspired by a talk by Georgetown’s Prof. Randy Barnett, includes links to follow up posts by Barnett and Larry Solum. 

Econoblogosphere is a meta-site of blogs regarding economics broken down into subject areas for easy surfing.  Hat tip: The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan.

The State Department launched it’s new blog “Dipnote" yesterday.  According to the welcoming entry, the title is an abbreviation of “diplomatic note,” which is a formal communication between an ambassador and a minister of a foreign government.  (I have to admit that the title initially made me wince, but hopefully I’ll get over that.)

The venture’s stated aims include “start[ing] a dialogue with the public,” “provid[ing] you with a window into the work of the people responsible for our foreign policy,” and “tak[ing you behind the scenes at the State Department.” The first topic should get things rolling nicely:  “Who Should be Allowed To Possess Nuclear Technology?”

Bloggers at Balkinization have collected and updated their posts on “the complex of issues raised by torture, interrogation, detention, war powers, Executive authority, the Department of Justice, and the Office of Legal Counsel.”

Among the bloggers anthologized are: Jack Balkin, Mark Graber, Stephen Griffin, Scott Horton, Marty Lederman (244 posts!), Sandy Levinson, David Luban, Brian Tamanaha, and an assortment of less prolific (on this blog, at least) posters such as Cass Sunstein, Larry Tribe, and Oona Hathaway. The posts date from 2003 to the current month—a few earlier Balkin op-eds are thrown in as a bonus. 

We’re All Journalists Now:
The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age
By Scott E. Gant
New York: Free Press, 2007

BiblioFlash: From the New Book Cart

This new book by Scott Gant, HLS ‘95, has been called “must reading for bloggers." Read a Q & A with Gant on Law Blog Metrics or listen to him discuss his work with Diane Rehm.