THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 15, 1995 TAG: 9505130034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THE GATEWAY
EXPLORING THE COMPUTER WORLD
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
IF IT WERE A COURT case, the University of Richmond would have won a default judgment.
In March, the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review announced to the world that it soon would become ``the first law journal of any kind to be published exclusively on-line.''
It never happened. The announced publication date was late March, but the journal never arrived. It still hasn't.
Meanwhile, on April 10, the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology was born. It now claims to be the first student-edited law journal in the country available only by computer.
For Richard P. Klau, editor of the Richmond journal, victory is sweet.
``I'm not a particularly big fan of going into something that people have been doing for a long time,'' said Klau, a 23-year-old second-year law student. ``Nobody had done this before. There was a real allure in that for me.''
Oddly enough, the College of William and Mary also is about to publish - if that is the right word - an online law journal. It is a faculty-edited publication called, appropriately, The Journal of Online Law. It will be available in late May.
The premier issues of both journals focus largely on computer law. In the future, however, the Richmond journal will broaden its focus to other forms of technology.
Editors in Richmond and Williamsburg say the timing - two law journals premiering weeks apart, just down the road from each other - is strictly coincidence.
``I really didn't want to conflict with or compete with the Richmond people,'' said Trotter Hardy, a law professor who edits the new W&M law journal.
In another odd coincidence, Hardy, the W&M editor, wrote one of the lead articles for the Richmond journal. That, too, was not planned.
``They (the Richmond students) asked me to write it last fall,'' Hardy said. ``It was already written when I decided to start my own journal.''
It's not as if the competition is fierce.
To date, only about 15 law journals are available online. Many are established publications printed on paper that are also available on the World Wide Web. All of them can be reached via links on the Richmond journal's home page.
Why publish online?
Mainly, Hardy said, ``it's just a cheaper way of doing it.'' There is virtually no cost - no paper, no printer, no distributor.
Second, the potential distribution is wider. For example, Hardy already has 500 subscribers from more than a dozen countries, before the first issue is even done.
In Richmond, the law journal got more than 1,000 ``hits,'' or computer visits, in its first two weeks, from places as far away as Australia and Greece.
Of course, Klau said, he can't be sure that anyone is actually reading the journal. But then, he added, neither can editors of paper-only law journals.
Finally, online journals can be more timely.
For example, an important legal ruling came down just one month before the Richmond journal went to ``press.'' Three articles had citations to that case, and all had to be rewritten. By computer, it was easy, even on short notice. For a conventional journal, Klau said, it would have been impossible. The pages would already have been sent to the printer.
One big question remains: How many lawyers will actually read the online journals?
It's hard to gauge. Many old-line law firms still teach their partners and associates that computers, and typing, are for secretaries. Some firms discourage lawyers from keeping computers in their office.
``I think lawyers are a little more conservative,'' Hardy said, ``and slower to catch on.'' MEMO: The Web address for the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology is
http://www.urich.edu/(tilde)jolt. To e-mail the editor, write to
JLT(AT)uofrlaw.urich.edu.
The Web address for the Journal of Online Law is
http://www.law.cornell.edu/jol/jol.table.html. The gopher address is
gopher.wm.edu, then follow the menus School of Law/Publications/Journal
of Online Law.
by CNB