Do Leiter’s Rankings Underestimate the Scholarly Impact of International and Comparative Law Scholars?

Mary Dudziak has an interesting post today at Legal History Blog that discusses why Brian Leiter’s citation rankings underestimate the scholarly impact of legal historians. One of the primary reasons, she explains, is that the study is confined to Westlaw’s JLR database:

What does this miss? Leading scholars will have an impact that ranges beyond their fields and beyond their nations. But the Westlaw database cannot measure impact beyond the legal academy, and the important global reach of many American legal scholars is not measured. All but a very few journals in the database are U.S.-based.

Dudziak’s post — and Roger’s recent attempt to turn Leiter’s rankings into a Monopoly board, which Leiter himself mentioned today — made me wonder whether the rankings similarly underestimate the scholarly impact of international and comparative law scholars. So I decided to see how many leading non-U.S. international and comparative law journals were not included in Westlaw’s JLR database.

The results of my admittedly unscientific and subjective analysis were revealing. Here is a list of leading journals that are not in Westlaw — and thus not counted by Leiter’s rankings:

There is also the related issue of publishing in “non-law” journals like Foreign Affairs. Foreign Affairs is arguably one of the most prestigious journals in which to publish, yet is also not included in Westlaw’s JLR database.

I don’t know how many international and comparative law scholars publish in these non-U.S. and “non-law” journals, but I’m willing to wager it’s a considerable number. I have an essay forthcoming in the Leiden Journal of International Law, Roger has published in the Journal of International Arbitration, and Peter has published in Foreign Affairs. I have no chance of making Leiter’s list any time soon, but Roger certainly does — and Peter already qualifies as a runner-up. (You’re more than that to us, Peter!) It seems clear, then, that Leiter’s rankings may well underestimate the scholarly impact of international and comparative lawyers.

UPDATE: My knowledge of areas other than international criminal law and international humanitarian law is limited, so I hope readers will chime in with other important journals that are not included in Westlaw’ JLR database. The list can be found by going to the database and clicking on the “info” button.