The Social Science Research Network just released its ranking of U.S. law schools, based on the number of downloads of their faculty’s papers since March 1, 2004. Here’s it is:
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
Note carefully number seven — none other than the George Mason University School of Law. This impressively high ranking is further evidence that entrepreneurial scholarship pays — that it pays to do scholarship that’s iconoclastic and that doesn’t grovel and try to imitate what it thinks scholars at elite schools are doing.
Congratulations to Dean Dan Polsby and his splendid and first-rate faculty, students, and staff!
