University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog

Welcome (another) new blogger

Laura Berezan is a third year law student embarking on her second career. She has a wide and varied experience working and volunteers with non-profit organizations, including providing consultation services related to organizational management, fund development and governance. Issues of justice, equity and fairness have been central to her life choices and she is looking forward to bringing those principles to a legal career.

Welcome New Blogger

A frequent commentor on our blog Stephen Harfield will be blogging on our blog this upcoming academic year. Stephen is a third-year law student and was my student, as well as my research assistant this summer. Welcome aboard.

Links Grrr

Marnie points out that the links to the bloggers are not working - thanks for the keen eye. My apologies for this. Our faculty website has been upgraded, and so the old links have changed. I will fix these soon.

Welcome Daniel Mol

Another of my former students Daniel Mol is joining us. He is a lawyer in Camrose and has shared his views in the press. More on Daniel can be found at his profile here.

Welcome new blogger

My former student Bruce Korol (LLB 2005) will be adding his two cents on our blog. Bruce, who currentlyu resides in Calgary, has been writing opinion pieces in the Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, and the National Post, Arts & Opinion. We look forward to a lively discussion on his views.

Other blog

I will also blogging over at the Western Standard's blog. I hope to have different entries for both blogs, but I am sure sometimes I will cross-list.

Announcing "ABlawg"

Our friends at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law have launched ABlawg - "a blog on developments in Alberta law".

Based on my quick scan, it looks very good.  I anticipate being a regular visitor as part of keeping abreast of developments in regulatory/constructive takings law and civil procedure.  (We'll put up a  permanent link next week.)  Well done and congratulations, UCalgary.

We're number 1

Congratulations to us for winning the best Law Professor Blog Award. Thanks to CLawBies for taking the effort to rank the various blogs. The credit goes to my colleagues who have been keeping the issues timely and interesting. Thanks to our readers for their comments.

Happy new year.

Ok, now back to grading!

Justice Bouck joins the Blogosphere

I am very happy to see that the Hon. Justice John Bouck has started a blog. Currently being tested, but hopefully we will get to hear from him over the next while. I have always thought that his views on justice in Canada were very sensible. Now if only his ideas will be taken seriously by the judiciary and those in charge of making the rules.

Guest Blogging

For the next week or so, I will be guest blogging at Point of Law. Comments are disabled there, but feel free to comment here; I can always try to address some of the comments over there if possible.

Blogging Skeptics

My colleague Barbara Billingsley expressed her doubts about the role blogging should play in academic legal scholarship. Over at Thought Capital, Corey Tomsons responds cogentlty plus he give his tips on academic blogging.

Welcome Guest Blogger

Professor Norman Siebrasse from the the University of New Brunswick Law School will be guest blogging with us. It is an honor for us to have Professor Siebrasse blog, as he is an expert in so many areas such as law and economics, IP law, Property law, etc. So welcome aboard.

Blogs

I've been told that I should learn to blog. I'm told that "blogging" will soon be, if it isn't already, a major form of dissemination of academic thought and commentary. The message, stripped of its polite disguise, is that I should "get with it, or get left behind."

I respond to this, first, by saying that I applaud the initiative, the motivation, the insights and the technological skills of those who have started and contributed to this, and other, law blogs. Indeed, I have, on another occasion, submitted a brief case comment by way of blog. I won't deny that I find it useful to have access to quick commentary from academic colleagues from across the country on legal issues of the day.

But, I have concerns about the notion that blogging will soon become the choice method of academic communication, or, worse yet, the notion that blogging ought to replace traditional forms of academic publishing. One of the major advantages of current technology–whether we are talking about emails, cell phones or blogs–is the ability for instant communication. But, this advantage also is the greatest danger of modern technology. (Who among us hasn't sent out an email which, upon sober second thought, we wished we could retract?) If blogging replaces more traditional forms of academic discourse, we lose the ‘sober second thought' and in depth analysis that comes with researching and writing a peer reviewed paper. There is certainly a role for blogging to play in academic discourse, but it is a role that is separate and apart from more traditional forms of academic communication. The fact that we now "can" blog, does not mean that we always ought to.

Appearance

I am currently experimenting with the look of the blog, so you will notice changes every once in a while. I hope to settle on a design by the end of the summer, so bear with me while I do this. The content will be unaffected by this, so please keep reading.

Welcome

This is the new University of Alberta, Faculty of Law Blog. We hope to get this fully functional and working by the start of the new semester of 2007/2008.

Please send comments - they are all appreciated.