法学研究的层次

九月廿一日，佛罗里达州立大学法学院的 J. B. Ruhl 教授在其所属的群组博克 Jurisdynamics 上发表了一则文字：“The Hierarchy of Legal Scholarship”，将法学研究依由低到高的层次分为如下10+1级：

0 – Blog posts
1 – Publication of what are essentially blog posts with footnotes
2 – Doctrinal review of the state of the law
3 – Doctrinal study of interesting questions of law
4 – Doctrinal synthesis of developments in law
5 – Normative policy analysis of law
6 – Normative policy analysis of law with substantial reform proposals
7 – Legal theory
8 – “Law and” interdisciplinary studies
9 – Empirical study of legal institutions
10 – Empirical study of law’s impact on society

J. B. Ruhl 教授的这一“blog post”引起了法学教授博克圈的不少讨论，例如 Lawrence Solum、Michael Dimino、Jim Chen、Michael Froomkin，还有来自 Eric Muller 教授的一个幽默/戏仿版，相当有趣：

0 – Student-written work by people other than me.
1 – Articles using two or more of the following four words or phrases: “intersectionality,” “rent-seeking,” “hegemony,” “externality.”
2 – Work in my field that totally ought to cite my work but fails to do so.
3 – First novels by professors at Yale Law School.
4 – Student-written work by me.
5 – Work that cites my work.
6 – My work.
7 – Scholarship ranking scholars, schools, and scholarship.
8 – Scholarship by faculty on the appointments committees of schools from which I’m hoping for lateral offers.
9 – Revolver, The Beatles. (UK version.)
10 – Articles ranking scholarship ranking scholars, schools, and scholarship
[11 - My blog post.]

与此相关的还有数日前 Brian Leiter 在 Yale Law Journal 网站发表的一则短文：“Why Blogs Are Bad for Legal Scholarship”。