Abstract
As President Trump reminds us every day, we live in the era of social media. While legal scholars are busy discussing, rethinking and opening fields of law to accommodate the societal changes triggered by the Internet, they have been rather slow in assessing its potential impact on their own communication and publishing practices. This is a blind spot, which this paper aims to explore. More precisely, this piece argues that blogs and social media are suitable communication means for legal scholarship and provides some pragmatic advice on how to use them. This paper first draws a general sketch of two key transformations in legal scholarship: the transnationalization of legal scholarship and the desacralization of the legal texts. It is argued that they are provoked by the rapid digitalization of our societies and are key drivers of a needed shift in scholarly communication. They constitute the wider backdrop for the analysis in the second and third sections of the function and practice of blogs and Twitter in legal scholarship.
Highlights
As President Trump reminds us every day, we live in the era of social media
This is a blind spot, which this paper aims to explore. This piece argues that blogs and social media are suitable communication means for legal scholarship and provides some pragmatic advice on how to use them
While on the other side of the Atlantic, attention has gone into the question of the future of legal scholarship in the digital age,[6] much of these debates remain hidden in American journals and hardly cross the pond
Summary
As President Trump reminds us every day, we live in the era of social media. He taught many people a lesson: Twitter is nowadays a powerful megaphone to reach and move an audience. Law and academia are not immune from technological changes; they will be, and already are, affected by the most disruptive innovation in the world of communication since the invention of the printing press.[4] Other social sciences – which are probably better placed methodologically to address this impact – have started informative discussions on the Internet’s effect on the academic field.[5] While on the other side of the Atlantic, attention has gone into the question of the future of legal scholarship in the digital age,[6] much of these debates remain hidden in American journals and hardly cross the pond This is a blind spot, which this paper seeks to explore. Should legal scholars be encouraged to share their views on social media? If social media and blogging become central to our way of communicating our ideas and opinions, should we not invest more resources in improving the quality of our digital communications? Alternatively, is the use of blogging and social media just a futile loss of precious research time? This paper aims to offer some answers to these questions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
