Of Interest at the AALS Annual Meeting

Just went thru the program for the AALS Annual Meeting, and found a couple of things worth noting:

1. On Saturday, January 7 at 1:30pm the Section on Scholarship will have a panel on "Blogging: Scholarship or Distraction?" My answer to that question is "potentially scholarship, too often distraction." Some may remember the exchange Steve Bainbridge, Brian Leiter and I had about that topic about 18 mos ago (linking to all that is utterly beyond me), where I expressed optimism that blogging could be "scholarly." I remain convinced that blogging can become a preeminent means of scholarly exchange, and that MOJ is a good case in point. Too often, however, law prof blogging is merely hallway or lunchroom conversation with an electronic megaphone: a mix of valuable discussion of law and legal theory, political argument, gossip, discussions of what I had for dinner or saw at the movies, and attempts to prove who is the smartest kid in the class. Fortunately, one staple of those conversations -- what's wrong with the dean --- doesn't usually show up in the blogosphere. The panel should, however, be very interesting. Anyone know who is speaking?

2. On Friday, Jan 6 at 4:00 pm the Section on Law and Communitarian Studies will have "A Conversation About Abortion." I have no idea what that will be like, but it is intriguing. Anyone with info might want to post it.

PS John Breen's article on Catholic law schools, mentioned by Susan below,  is a very useful critique of the claims of many Catholic law schools that they are adequately serving their mission.

--Mark