Drinking and law reviews: do they mix?

I am grateful to the many fine comments and insights about law reviews and their receptivity to Catholic Legal Theory scholarship. Mark's recent post is a good example of the careful thought about what is and what is not going on as well as what is right and what is wrong with publishing legal scholarship today. I am also grateful for Tom's, Susan's, and Richard's earlier remarks, as well. My comments today must be brief.

My first point is that in addition to the excellent journals Mark mentioned which do seek and publish quality articles in CLT, there are many other journals, perhaps not at the so-called elite schools, which do publish CLT pieces along with other well researched and written articles or essays (assuming that there is a substantive difference; editors do, but I am not sure that I agree). The cult of the "elite" journal seems to be an enterprise based more on fiction than fact. The bottom line is this: does the journal have good articles that make a contribution to the law both in theory and practice or not?

My second point is that even the "elite" journals should not be characterized as antipathetic to CLT. True, they may generally not be inclined to accept a CLT manuscript. But, should the sins of the fathers (and mothers) rest upon their children as well? What do I mean by this: each year a new board of editors takes over at every journal. What may have been viewed as the type of scholarship acceptable by one board does not mean that succeeding boards will have the same interests or prejudices.

Having made these two observations, we might wish to take into account the wisdom of Fred Rodell offered back in 1936: "[t]he best way to get a laugh out of a law review is to take a couple of drinks and then read the article, any article, aloud. That can be really funny." 23 Va L Rev 38, 40 (1936). While I am not sure that Rodell's remark would necessarily apply to "any article," he also found publication venues beyond law reviews in which he could and did make scholarly and practical contributions to the law. Perhaps MOJ is one such alternative venue for us today.   RJA sj