On File With Author

I recently reviewed the proposed student edits of a forthcoming article in the Notre Dame Law Review. They are doing an outstanding job, but I have one small quibble. In the process of editing, the student editors asked me for a copy of three documents that I had on file and that were cited in the article as “On File With Author.”

Upon reflection it seemed ludicrous for me to provide those documents only to the editors and not to future readers. So I scanned the documents, posted them as a file on Opinio Juris, and rewrote the footnote to say, for example, “available at http://www.opiniojuris.org/files/Crawford_Declaration.pdf.”

That solution is great for someone like me who happens to have access to a blog and can easily upload files myself. But for all other authors the practice continues to be a footnote that says, “On File With Author.” In 2006 alone, there were over 2,500 articles in the Westlaw JLR library that included this incredibly unhelpful reference. This is absurd.

There is a simple solution. The students who write the BlueBook should modify Rule 17.1 to encourage (or require) law journals to scan and place unpublished documents online. Or at a minimum law review editors should take this step on their own initiative. Subject to confidentiality or similar concerns, there is no reason that most unpublished documents cited in law review articles are not accessible to readers. As a matter of course every law journal should eliminate as many “On File With Author” references and replace them with uploaded documents available to its readers with the new reference. Instead of “On File With Author” perhaps one day in the not too distant future we will see this sort of reference: available at www.harvardlawreview.org/files/2008/alford/document123.pdf.

Wishful thinking I know, but it’s worth a shot.