From the Publisher: A New Era for Judicature

The Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies launches this inaugural issue of Judicature with excitement and trepidation. It is a bittersweet moment, as it comes on the heels of the American Judicature Society’s demise. AJS was a venerable institution that effectively promoted the interests of justice and the judiciary for more than a century. Taking the helm of this esteemed journal and carrying on the Society’s legacy are privileges we do not take lightly.

Dean David F. Levi established the Judicial Studies Center in 2011 to foster exploration of the judiciary and case-resolution process from different points of view. The Center has moved on multiple fronts to bring scholars, practitioners, and judges together in collaborative efforts to understand, support, and advance our judicial system. Too often these three major players have worked in discrete worlds, foregoing valuable opportunities to learn from each other. By facilitating collaboration, the Center aims to achieve a better understanding of the judiciary and improve the law and the administration of justice.

Judicature complements the Center’s mission and provides a means to strengthen this bench-bar-academy coalition. The federal and state court judges participating in our LL.M. program will serve as Judicature’s editorial board. Judges will learn of educational opportunities available to them, including our judicial studies LL.M. program, which is generously supported by The Duke Endowment. The work product of our ‘Distinguished Lawyers’ legal-reform conferences will be made widely available. Law professors and political and social scientists will have an opportunity to bring their powerful analytical tools, techniques, and rigorous standards to an examination of
judicial policymaking and decision making.

All this is consistent with our plan to bring a fresh perspective to Judicature. Our publication criteria are simple: submitted articles will be published only if they are useful and relevant to judges and the study of judging or advance improvements in the administration of justice.

We return to and honor Judicature’s long tradition of publishing articles submitted from the bench, bar, and academia. We also will continue to include empirical research that informs our understanding of the judiciary. We will publish articles on emerging legal issues, case-management techniques, and any other matter that pertains to the daily work of a judge. We aim to play a role in reforming the law by soliciting and publishing first-rate scholarship, harnessing the special expertise that judges, practitioners, and academics have amassed in their respective spheres. We will do so always with an eye to addressing the very real and practical problems faced by litigants and the practicing bar and bench.

Because we believe deeply in the relevance and value of Judicature, the Center will provide a complimentary subscription to every Article III judge, federal magistrate judge, and state supreme court justice. We will extend a deeply discounted subscription rate to all other state and federal judges. We expect that lawyers and other professionals who are interested in judicial reform and in keeping up with topics of interest to the judiciary also will read Judicature and support it with subscriptions and sponsorships.

As we undertake this exciting and important endeavor, we hope to hear from you. We will publish a regular “Letters to the Editor” column, selecting representative comments for publication. Please send your thoughts, suggestions, and comments to judicature@law.duke.edu. With your help, Judicature will continue to illuminate the practical challenges of the practice of judging, the ideas and research that advance our understanding of the law, and the shared labor of the bench, bar, and academy as we seek to improve the administration of justice.

— John Rabiej, Director, Duke Law School Center for Judicial Studies