Editor's Corner: Are Law Reviews Peer‐Reviewed?

• Author: Sandra K. Miller
• Date: 01 September 2008
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1714.2008.00060.x
• Published date: 01 September 2008

Editor’s Corner: Are Law Reviews Peer-Reviewed?

Professors who teach law in business schools are frequently placed on the de-

fensive by their colleagues in the business school and the law school. ‘‘Aren’tlaw

reviews student-edited? ’’ ask our counterparts who teach finance or manage-

ment. ‘‘The J.D. isn’t a real Ph.D. is it?’’ they ask. Meanwhile, professors in law

school are mystified by what we teach in business school. ‘‘Do you ever assign

actual cases to read?’’ they wonder. So, what is it that we do? We teach law. We

analyze legal policy.Most importantly, we are the players who balance the needs

of business with the need to maintain laws that will prevent injustice and abuse.

This sounds pretty important to me. We are reminded of the true value of the

legal regulation of business when we consider the failures: the tainted tooth-

paste, the lead in children’s toys, the bridges that collapse as contractors skimp

on building materials, the building code violations that erupt into infernos, the

minority shareholder who unwittingly sells to the majority for a modest price

on the eve of a clandestine merger paying billions. We usually do not write

articles that include long rows of numbers (although increasingly we do engage

in empirical research). Most of us do not teach in law schools. However,

we wage important battles against selfishness and greed, unfairness and

exploitation. The authors of the articles contained in this volume continue

the struggle.

On the surface, the articles appearing in Volume 45:3 have little in

common. They deal with such diverse subjects as the Children’s Online

Privacy Protection Act, the availability of the equitable defense of clean

hands, mixed-motive disparate treatment law, and export control regula-

tions. What do these articles have in common? In the broadest sense, the

authors of these articles attempt to promote justice and/or freedom of ac-

tion in the business sphere. At the same time, each writer works toward the

development of legal restrictions that will foster the accountability of busi-

ness and prevent the abuse of the individual.

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