Foreword.

Everything in this issue is in some way connected to The Journal's past. The first two essays, one by Professors Barger and Gustafson, who are still with The Journal, and one by Dean Smith, who is now president of Southern Virginia University, both address its founding. Coleen and Lindsey write about what it was like to put the first issue together, and Rod writes about how that process looked from a slight remove. Together, their memories help the rest of us understand how The Journal came to be. That founding narrative is unique, of course, but it is universal too: There was an idea, then there was a plan, and then there was lots of work. And although nobody has ever said so, I have always supposed that there were also some crossed fingers, a few moments of doubt, the occasional muttered curse, and perhaps a prayer or two.

Among the substantive articles in this issue, Professor Baker's annotated bibliography goes to the essence of our reason for being: to provide a forum for creative thought and dialogue about the operation of appellate courts and their influence on the development of the law. Mr. Doyle, who is doubtless familiar to you as the brains behind the law-journal-rankings site hosted by Washington and Lee, contributes another article that harks back to the vision that motivated our founders. He asks whether law journals as we know them can provide that sort of forum in today's media environment. (For the moment at least, I think that the answer is yes, but all of us here are monitoring the changes that seem nearly every day to affect some aspect of law-journal publishing.)

Professor Cleveland's article about Rule 32.1 follows both Judge Arnold's famous comment about unpublished opinions, which ran in our second issue, and the series of Anastasoff--related articles that appeared in our Volume 3, Issue

  1. And Ms. Millett, who writes here about seeking the assistance of the Solicitor General in cases to be argued in the Supreme Court, brings...

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