Received the following email from SSRN (Social Science Research Network) Today:
SSRN is pleased to announce a new service:
We now list Top Law Schools based on downloads from SSRN’s eLibrary. This list will be revised monthly.The Top 20 Law Schools as measured by downloads of their faculty’s
papers from SSRN over the last 12 months ending March 1, 2005 are:SSRN TOP 20 LAW SCHOOLS (BETA) [law school homes of Volokh Conspirators are in bold]
1 Harvard University – Harvard Law School
2 Stanford Law School
3 University of Chicago – Law School
4 Columbia University – Columbia Law School
5 University of California, Los Angeles – School of Law
6 University of Texas at Austin – School of Law
7 George Mason University – School of Law
8 University of California, Berkeley – School of Law (Boalt Hall)
9 Yale University – Law School
10 University of Virginia – School of Law
11 George Washington University – Law School
12 Georgetown University Law Center
13 New York University – School of Law
14 Vanderbilt University – School of Law
15 University of San Diego – School of Law
16 University of Pennsylvania – School of Law
17 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – College of Law
18 Boston University – School of Law
19 University of Michigan at Ann Arbor – Law School
20 Fordham University – School of Law
More complete data can be found on the SSRN website (registration required).
Obviously, there are some vagaries in the system: schools with bigger faculties have an advantage over smaller schools, schools with a higher participation rate in SSRN have an advantage over schools with less participation, and one extremely well-cited paper can significantly increase a school’s standing. On the other hand, unlike, say, Brian Leiter’s citation counts, this system rewards rather than punishes school with active but relatively junior faculties. In any event, without endorsing the particular order above, the top 20 on the SSRN list seems awfully close to the schools that I’d think have among the twenty best faculties in the country.
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