In an era when hundreds of law reviews publish thousands of articles each year, legal scholars face a daunting question: What is actually worth reading? Since 2009, legal scholars seeking the most insightful new scholarship have turned to a trusted source — The Journal of Things We Like (Lots), better known as Jotwell.
Rather than publishing long-form articles, the online legal journal, sponsored by the University of Miami School of Law, specializes in brief, law professor-authored reviews on what they believe to be the best recent scholarship relevant to their field. It is devoted to reviews of the great recent legal writing that top scholars in the field believe deserve a wide readership.
Today, Jotwell is a brand name in the legal academy and serves as a guide to important scholarship across a wide range of fields.
Solution to information overload
Michael Froomkin, the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law and Jotwell’s Editor-in-Chief, launched the journal in response to a growing challenge facing legal academics of keeping up with ever-expanding numbers of law reviews and journals.
“There was such a flood of scholarship that it was hard to know what to read,” Froomkin said. “Big-name law reviews used to be both gatekeepers and must-reads but… It’s not practical to keep up. So, I thought there was a need for a trusted intermediary that would tell me and others what we ought to be reading.”
That idea became the foundation for Jotwell’s unique format. Instead of long-form scholarship, the journal publishes concise expert commentary that directs readers to outstanding recent work in the field.
The power of the “Jot”
Jotwell states that its objective is straightforward - to help academics and others identify the best recent legal scholarship and the need is significant. More than 500 law reviews and law journals are published in the United States alone, making it increasingly difficult for law faculty to identify the most impactful work.
The online journal aggregates content, and new jots appear five times a week, forty-eight weeks per year. Current sections include administrative law, constitutional law, contracts, corporate law, courts law, criminal law, equality, family law, health law, international & comparative law, intellectual property, jurisprudence legal history, legal profession, property, tax, technology law, torts, trusts & estates, work law, and more.
A national network of scholars
One reason for Jotwell’s influence is its caliber of contributors. Each section is led by distinguished scholars who identify noteworthy scholarship and recruit about a dozen contributing editors to write reviews.
When a respected scholar highlights an article in Jotwell, it can significantly increase attention to that work, especially for emerging academics, building their professional reputations. “For unpublished pieces I think it’s also significant, as it directs attention to them at least earlier,” Froomkin noted. “For junior scholars I think it’s very significant; I know many have included being reviewed in Jotwell in their tenure files.”
All content is available for free and open to reader comment.
The role of student editors
University of Miami School of Law students also play a pivotal role in Jotwell’s success. Each year Froomkin recruits students to support faculty editors both at the University of Miami School of Law and elsewhere and their role is a blend of a substantive editor and managing editor. The ideal candidates are sensitive to nuance, organized careful editors, and enjoy reading legal scholarship.
With more than 250 different annual contributors, the students contribute to editing and Bluebooking all the submissions. In the process, they gain exposure to cutting-edge legal analysis just by reading all the jots in the sections they manage. “Students also gain a set of skills that will help them be better starting lawyers in an organization,” Froomkin said.
More than fifteen years since its launch, Jotwell continues to fill an important niche in legal scholarship.
“We provided a way to give thumbnails of important scholarship in fields where one might not normally be reading,” Froomkin said. “Creating a system where I’d have leading law profs doing the research to figure out what I should be reading just seemed ideal.”
