Thou Shalt Not Take Opinio Juris’s Name in Vain!

My colleagues and I really like the name of our blog. And so, apparently, do others! A new Italian blog has just started that also calls itself Opinio Juris. It appears to cover issues of international law and politics as well, which makes its name more than a little frustrating. You’d think the blog could have chosen a different name, given that Opinio Juris 1.0 has been around for more than 15 years. As friend-of-the-real-OJ Santiago Vargas Niño pointed out on twitter, they didn’t even call it “Opinio Iuris,” even though, in his experience, “Italian lawyers who are very opinionated about the proper Latin spelling of the word.”

That said, at least the Italian blog isn’t shamelessly appropriating our intellectual property. The same cannot be said for the new “Opinio Juris Global Journal,” which is currently soliciting contributions for the second issue of its first volume — at the discount price for inclusion of 1000 rupees. See here and here. Note that both CfPs makes shameless use of our previous white and blue “OJ” logo, which makes clear the “journal” is trying to mislead scholars into believing that it is associated with our blog. To be clear, it’s not. And it’s deeply frustrating that our hard-earned reputation is being used to foment an academic publishing scam.

As the Dutch say, I trust with this you are adequately informed.