I see that Paul Caron is blogging about the new paper by Joni Hersch and W. Kip Viscusi (both of Vanderbilt Law School), entitled "Law and Economics as a Pillar of Legal Education," which is now up on ssrn. Lots of good stuff to talk about in there. For instance, about 32% of faculty at the top 13 schools have Ph.Ds. I didn't realize that recent hiring has been so phd-centric at those schools. Also, I was somewhat surprised by table 1 ("Educational Profiles of Faculty at the 26 Highest Ranked Law Schools"). Of the 1338 faculty at the top 26 schools, 65 have only a phd (and no law degree).
Here is the abstract:
This paper reports the distribution of doctoral degrees in economics and in other fields among faculty at the 26 highest ranked law schools. Almost one-third of professors at the top 13 law schools have a Ph.D. degree, with nine percent having a Ph.D. in economics. Law school rank is highly correlated with the share of faculty holding a Ph.D. in economics and is less correlated with the share of faculty with other doctoral degrees. Law and economics is a major area of legal scholarship based on citations in the law literature and other impact rankings. In recognition of the increased importance of law and economics in legal education, in 2006 Vanderbilt University established a joint J.D./Ph.D. program in law and economics. We provide information on the genesis and operation of the program.
It must be fall, if the next generation of rankings scholarship is going up on ssrn!
Is it really fair to describe law and economics (or "law and ... anything") as a "pillar of legal education?" It might be a pillar of legal scholarship, I suppose, but outside the top 10 or so law schools (or maybe just the top 4 or 5), I'd be hard-pressed to imagine that legal education strays too far -- in any methodological or substantive direction -- beyond fairly conventionally doctrinal approaches to subject matter that clusters around what's on the bar exam and some clinical offerings.
Posted by: Eric Muller | August 25, 2011 at 08:13 PM
To be clear, I am drawing a distinction here between "legal education" and "legal scholarship." The two strike me as rather different things, though it's flattering all of us lawprof types to think that they're the same.
Posted by: Eric Muller | August 25, 2011 at 08:14 PM
Maybe the idea is that legal education is like the Parthenon, and has many, many pillars, any one of which might not be all that important.
Posted by: Matt | August 25, 2011 at 10:04 PM
My new article "Fourth Amendment Law as a Pillar of Legal Education" should be up on SSRN soon.
Posted by: Orin Kerr | August 26, 2011 at 12:58 AM
I like that, Orin, and not just because it fits w/ my new "Parthenonic" theory of legal education. (I see one advantage of my account being that it recognizes that not all pillars are load bearing.)
Posted by: Matt | August 26, 2011 at 07:05 AM
I like to think of my work as more of a flying buttress.
Posted by: Eric Muller | August 26, 2011 at 09:30 AM
Interesting. My work is often described as a flying mattress.
Posted by: Mike Rich | August 26, 2011 at 11:15 AM