The ‘Why’, the ‘What’, and the ‘How’ of a Scholarly Life

Authors

• Rosemary Salomone

Abstract

(Excerpt)

In this essay I explore the “why,” “what,” and “how” of legal scholarship, focusing on the arc of my own research and writing while also recognizing both commonalities and differences among legal scholars.

First, the “why.” For those of us who teach the law, legal scholarship involves the production and dissemination of knowledge in ways that both benefit our students and inform the law as it impacts public policy. Ideally, there is a synergy between what we write and what we teach. We incorporate into our teaching what we have learned from our research and from practice. At the same time, what we teach, and what we learn from our students, enriches our writing. Some of us write for the practicing bar, others for the scholarly community, and still others for both audiences, with an emphasis on one or the other.