Jurist (website)

Last updated
Jurist
JURIST logo.png
JURIST screenshot.png
Screenshot from JURIST
Type of site
Legal
Available inEnglish
OwnerJURIST Legal News & Research Services, Inc.
Created byBernard Hibbitts et al.
URL jurist.org
CommercialNo
RegistrationNo
Launched1996
Current statusActive

Jurist (stylized in all caps) is a non-profit online legal news service run by law student volunteers from 29 law schools in the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Kenya, Mauritius, India, Australia, and New Zealand. [1] It features continuously updated US and international legal news based on primary source documents and contextualized by informed commentary provided by law professors, policymakers, lawyers and law students. An internet-based example of service learning, [2] Jurist gives its law student staffers ongoing opportunities to broaden their awareness of current legal events and develops their research and writing skills in a 21st-century technological environment while they serve the public as apprentice journalists. [3] [4] [5] The site is owned and operated by Jurist Legal News and Research Services, Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational organization based at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law led by executive director Megan McKee in conjunction with a board of directors chaired by Professor Bernard Hibbitts, who is also Jurist's publisher and editor-in-chief.

Contents

History

University of Pittsburgh law professor Bernard Hibbitts created the website that would become Jurist in 1996 as a part-time personal project extending his academic interest in the evolving relationship between law and technology. [6] [7] The service was originally called Law Professors on the Web, [8] with the name Jurist being officially adopted in 1997. [9] Initially designed as a non-commercial clearinghouse of academic papers and teaching resources that had lately been posted online by Hibbitts and other innovating law professors, [10] it was the first open hub for legal scholarship and law teaching materials on the internet. [11] [12] In 2001 the New York Times referred to Jurist "the wonderful legal education mega-site". [13] To extend its global reach in the days of slow dialup speeds, Jurist operated a UK mirror site at the University of Cambridge and an Australian mirror at Australian National University. [14]

In 1998, Jurist – still just Hibbitts and a couple of law student assistants who happened to have technical skills - began pivoting to respond to pressing public demand for authoritative and timely information on the legal aspects of rapidly-developing current issues. Jurist provided extended research and organized academic commentary on the Clinton impeachment crisis, the Kosovo War, the 2000 US presidential election recount and terrorism law and policy in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. By 2003, Jurist had been reconceptualized as a new kind of news service fusing academic research and legal journalism [15] [16] and ceased functioning as a scholarly archive, leaving that mission to SSRN, Bepress and other up-and-coming commercial repositories. Hibbitts and his assistants recruited a staff of some 25 law students from the University of Pittsburgh to begin reporting and documenting national and international news in real-time, supplemented by the invited contributions of expert academic commentators. In 2008, Jurist incorporated as a Pennsylvania non-profit and subsequently obtained an IRS determination to be a charitable organization as defined in Section 501(c)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code. Hibbitts became Chairman of Jurist's board of directors and formally assumed the role of Jurist's Publisher & Editor-in-Chief.

Commentary

Jurist's commentary service, which dates back to Jurist 's coverage [17] of the Kosovo War in 1999, provides informed analysis of publicly-significant legal events by law professors, lawyers, policymakers, activists and law students from around the world. Law student editors identify and invite contributors qualified to comment on pressing legal developments, and review and prepare their commentaries for publication.

Jurist also sponsors a Jurist Journalist in Residence Program, [18] designed to engage Jurist's law student staff on issues related to the future of journalism and journalistic ethics and practice. Each academic term on a rotating basis, an established journalist visits JURIST to provide professional counsel and guidance. In the fall of 2020 the inaugural Jurist Journalist in Residence was Jane Singer, Professor of Journalism Innovation in the Department of Journalism at the City University of London.

Awards and distinctions

Jurist won the Webby People's Voice Award in 2006 [19] [20] and has been repeatedly recognized by the American Bar Association Journal [21] [22] [23] as one of "the best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers". Jurist has been archived by the Library of Congress since 2004. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Pittsburgh</span> Public university in Pennsylvania, U.S.

The University of Pittsburgh is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the university's central administration and around 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The 132-acre Pittsburgh campus includes various historic buildings that are part of the Schenley Farms Historic District, most notably its 42-story Gothic revival centerpiece, the Cathedral of Learning. Pitt is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is the second-largest non-government employer in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgetown University Law Center</span> Private law school in Washington, D.C., US

The Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment, with over 2000 students. It frequently receives the most full-time applications of any other law school in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William S. Richardson School of Law</span>

The William S. Richardson School of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Located in Honolulu, Hawaii, the school is named after its patriarch, former Hawaii State Supreme Court Chief Justice William S. Richardson, a zealous advocate of Hawaiian culture, and is Hawaii's only law school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris-Panthéon-Assas University</span> French university in Paris

Paris-Panthéon-Assas University or Assas University, commonly known as Assas or Paris 2, is a university in Paris, often described as the top law school of France. It is considered the direct inheritor of the Faculty of Law of Paris, the second-oldest faculty of Law in the world, founded in the 12th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law</span> Law school of Yeshiva University in New York

The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. program was established in 1998. Cardozo is nondenominational and has a secular curriculum, in contrast to some of YU's undergraduate programs. Around 320 students begin the J.D. program per year, of whom about 57% are women. In addition, there are about 60–70 LL.M. students each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Virginia School of Law</span> Public law school in Charlottesville, Virginia

The University of Virginia School of Law is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819, Virginia Law is the second oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derrick Bell</span> American lawyer, professor, and civil rights activist

Derrick Albert Bell Jr. was an American lawyer, legal scholar, and civil rights activist. Bell first worked for the U.S. Justice Department, then the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he supervised over 300 school desegregation cases in Mississippi.

The Commonwealth System of Higher Education is a statutory designation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that confers "state-related" status on four universities in Pennsylvania: Lincoln University, the Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, and the University of Pittsburgh. The designation establishes the schools as an "instrumentality of the commonwealth" and provides each university with annual, non-preferred financial appropriations in exchange offering tuition discounts to students who are residents of Pennsylvania and a minority state-representation on each school's board of trustees.

Florida State University College of Law is the law school of Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida.

Seattle University School of Law is the law school affiliated with Seattle University, located in Seattle, Washington, United States.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law is the law school of the University of Pittsburgh, a public research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and became a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools in 1900. Its primary home facility is the Barco Law Building. The school offers four degrees: Master of Studies in Law, Juris Doctor, Master of Laws for international students, and the Doctor of Juridical Science. The school offers several international legal programs, operates a variety of clinics, and publishes several law journals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business</span> Business school of the University of Pittsburgh

The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business is the graduate business school of the University of Pittsburgh located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although business education had its origins at the university in 1907, the Graduate School of Business was established in 1960 from a merger of its predecessors, the School of Business Administration and the Graduate School of Retailing. It was renamed in 1987 after businessman and university alumnus benefactor Joseph Katz. The school offers a traditional, accelerated, part-time, business analytics, and executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees as well as Master of Science degrees in Accounting, Business Analytics, Finance, Information Systems, Management, Marketing, Supply Chain Management and several Ph.D. programs in business. Katz is regularly ranked in the top 5% of Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business-accredited schools and in the top 0.3% of schools worldwide that grant business degrees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UCL Faculty of Laws</span>

The UCL Faculty of Laws is the law school of University College London (UCL), itself part of the federal University of London. It is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties and is based in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the world's leading law schools, and ranked 6th globally in the 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings for Law.

Law school rankings are a specific subset of college and university rankings dealing specifically with law schools. Like college and university rankings, law school rankings can be based on empirical data, subjectively-perceived qualitative data, or some combination of these. Such rankings are often consulted by prospective students as they choose which schools they will apply to or which school they will attend. There are several different law school rankings, each of which has a different emphasis and methodology.

<i>The Pitt News</i> Newspaper for the University of Pittsburgh

The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and student-managed newspaper for the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The Pitt News has been active in some form since 1910 and is published online Monday through Friday, and in print on Wednesdays, during the regular academic year and Wednesdays during the summer.

Pittsburgh is home to the first commercial radio station in the United States, KDKA 1020AM, the first community-sponsored television station in the United States, WQED 13, the first "networked" television station and the first station in the country to broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, KDKA 2, and the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Bernard Hibbitts is a Canadian lawyer, law professor, academic entrepreneur, editor and publisher currently teaching in the United States at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Trained as a legal historian, his early work focused on the historical relationship between law, technology and the senses. In the mid-1990s he wrote a series of controversial articles on the future of law reviews and scholarly publishing in the then-just-emerging age of the Internet. He is best known today as the founder, publisher & Editor-in-Chief of JURIST, the Webby award-winning online legal news service he created in 1996 that is now powered by a volunteer team of over 80 students from 29 law schools in the US, the UK, continental Europe, Kenya, Mauritius, Australia and New Zealand. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of JURIST Legal News and Research Services, Inc., the 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation he organized to operate JURIST in 2008.

A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also provide a scholarly analysis of emerging law concepts from various topics. Law reviews are generated in almost all law bodies/institutions worldwide. However, in recent years, some have claimed that the traditional influence of law reviews is declining.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penn State Law</span> Law school in University Park, Pennsylvania, US

Penn State Law, located in University Park, Pennsylvania, is one of two separately accredited law schools of the Pennsylvania State University. Penn State Law offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees. The school also offers a joint J.D./M.B.A. with the Smeal College of Business, a joint J.D./M.I.A. degree with the School of International Affairs, which is also located in the Lewis Katz Building, as well as joint degrees with other graduate programs at Penn State.

John Anthony Flood is a British and Australian sociologist, legal academic, consultant, author and a researcher. He is professor of law and Society at Griffith University and an adjunct professor of law at Queensland University of Technology. Flood is also a research associate at UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies.

References

  1. ↑ "Staff – JURIST – Legal News & Commentary". www.jurist.org. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  2. ↑ Cohn, Ellen; Hibbitts, Bernard (2005-07-01). "Academic Public Service Web Sites and the Future of Virtual Academic Public Service". Innovate: Journal of Online Education. 1 (5). ISSN   1552-3233.
  3. ↑ Hibbitts, Bernard J. (2010-02-01). "The Technology of Law". Law Library Journal. Rochester, NY. SSRN   1557312.
  4. ↑ "Pitt Law - JURIST". YouTube . 2017. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  5. ↑ Salisbury, Abigail (2009-11-02). "Skills Without Stigma: Using the JURIST Method to Teach Legal Research and Writing". Journal of Legal Education. Rochester, NY. SSRN   1534916.
  6. ↑ Hibbitts, Bernard J. (1996). "Last Writes? Re-Assessing the Law Review in the Age of Cyberspace". New York University Law Review. Rochester, NY. SSRN   1546765.
  7. ↑ Deshmukh, Vishwajeet. "Legal education should prepare students for the 21st century, not the 19th: Prof. Bernard Hibbitts". Bar and Bench - Indian Legal news. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  8. ↑ "JURIST is Fast, Informed Take on News". Pittwire. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  9. ↑ "The Scout Report - April 11, 1997 | Internet Scout". scout.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  10. ↑ "Taking 'Writes' Seriously: The Future (?) of the Law Review - Professor Bernard Hibbitts". www.law.pitt.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  11. ↑ Slomanson, William (June 1998). "Electronic Lawyering and the Academy".
  12. ↑ "Electronic Law Journals - JILT 1997 (2) - Brien". warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  13. ↑ Kaplan, Carl (2001-05-25). "Cyber Law Journal: Cool Sites for 2001 (Published 2001)" . The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  14. ↑ "Electronic Law Journals – JILT 1997 (2) – Brien". warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  15. ↑ "Changes (Good Ones) at Jurist". DennisKennedy.Blog. 2003-10-01. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  16. ↑ "Online project at University of Pittsburgh targets legal issues". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  17. ↑ "Law Professors in Belgrade Make Internet Appeal". movies2.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  18. ↑ "JURIST Journalist in Residence Program - JURIST - Legal News & Commentary". www.jurist.org. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  19. ↑ "TaxProf Blog: JURIST Wins Webby People's Voice Award as Best Law Website of 2006". taxprof.typepad.com. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  20. ↑ "Feature | Pitt Magazine | University of Pittsburgh". 2008-01-14. Archived from the original on 2008-01-14. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  21. ↑ Journal, A. B. A. "Paper Chase is 'Doing Public Service,' Sharing Info Real Time and For Free". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  22. ↑ "Jurist—Paper Chase - ABA Journal". www.abajournal.com. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  23. ↑ "Top Five Free Legal News Websites for the Legal News Junkie". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  24. ↑ "JURIST – Legal news and research". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.