Episode 9: Reviewing Book Reviewing

Which author of a legal monograph has not had that frustrating
feeling -- Why is my book not getting reviewed (and his or her
book is...!)? And yet, in one of the many exquisite paradoxes of
academic life, all Book Review editors of legal journals will
attest to the difficulty of getting colleagues to accept to do a
book review. 'I have to read that book carefully (i.e. going
beyond the index and checking if I am cited and whether the
engagement with my work is ok) and then write a couple of pages
which count for nothing in the current lamentable state of
quantitative academic appointments and promotions? Thank you but
no thank you is the usual reply. We want our books reviewed but
we don't like reviewing books. Or as readers of legal book
reviews -- have you ever had the frustrating feeling of 'I want
to read about the book and this reviewer is just using it to
inflict on us his own thoughts and ideas'. Or the opposite -- if
I want to read a description of the book I can go to the
publisher's website (or the author's homepage...). Why is this
review so bland and lacking in critical bite? 


These are just some of the issues that Cait Storr, Fuad
Zarbiyev, EJIL book review editor Christian Tams and EJIL editors
in Chief Sarah Nouwen and Joseph Weiler discuss in this EJIL
Live! The podcast accompanies issue 31.4
which contains a 'Bumper' Book Review section. At the
end of the podcast, plans for another EJIL innovation are
revealed…