Can Law Students Disrupt the Market for High-priced Textbooks?
| Citation | Vol. 11 No. 1 |
| Publication year | 2015 |
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ...................................................................................... 2
I. Sales Law for a New Century and Agreements Supplement ..... 3
II. Lock-in to Principal-Agent Conflicts ......................................... 6
III.Sharing Ownership of the Problem ............................................ 8
Conclusion ..................................................................................... 11
INTRODUCTION
For a faculty member, the question of why most law school textbooks cost so much and why "disruptive" publishing models are gaining so little traction in legal education is merely of academic interest. For our students, however, these issues are yet another example of how the current system of legal education is unresponsive to their needs and concerns. In this essay, I will describe The Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) eLangdell Press open access textbook publishing project as well as the sales law textbook and "agreements supplement" I am writing that will be published by CALI eLangdell Press. I will highlight some of the market failures apparently retarding the production and adoption of non-traditional textbooks in legal education. Although these barriers to innovation in the American legal textbook market are significant, they are not insurmountable. Given that law students have the most to gain from alternative, cheaper textbooks, it might make sense for law students to launch a "naming and shaming" strategy to give law faculty members greater incentives to produce and adopt open access textbooks.
CALI is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance legal education through technological innovation and collaboration, and its funding comes from its member law schools, which include more than ninety-five percent of all accredited law schools in America. I have served on the board of directors of CALI since 1998. For decades, CALI has been at the forefront of harnessing technological innovation to improve student learning outcomes. Once I decided to publish a new textbook, the choice for me as a board member to publish my textbook with CALI might seem obvious. But the CALI eLangdell Press does not rely on altruism or board seats to motivate authors to publish royalty-free textbooks. CALI has an editorial board that reviews proposals from prospective authors and offers to those authors whose books are selected for publication a lump-sum, up-front royalty equivalent to that provided by most traditional publishers for the same work.
Given that the CALI eLangdell Press project is now offering incentives similar to those offered by traditional publishers, it is surprising how few faculty members have contributed or adopted eLangdell Press textbooks. To explore the causes of the slow take-up of open access publishing generally and the counter-veiling motivations of those faculty members who have chosen to publish in open access form, I invited several colleagues who have already published open access textbooks to contribute short essays discussing their experiences:
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