The Future of the Casebook: An Argument for an Open-Source Approach

Abstract

Despite dramatic technological change, the thick, attractively-bound casebook remains ensconced as the written centerpiece of legal education. That will soon change -but its replacement has not been established. This paper argues that the legal academy should take this opportunity to implement an "open source" approach to future course materials. Guided by analysis and examples of commons-based peer production such as open source software, professors could establish electronic commons casebooks with a myriad of materials for every course. These joint databases would unshackle individual creativity while engendering collaboration on levels previously impossible. Although there may be concerns that such a project would not draw any interest, or might be swamped by too much interest, the successes of other peer-production projects demonstrate that such concerns are generally unwarranted or manageable. Copyright ultimately poses the biggest difficulty, but even that barrier can be circumvented to greater and lesser degrees. Although as yet an untried experiment, an open source approach has the potential to open a new era in legal pedagogy.

Open Textbooks and Provincial Government Policy: A Look at the Issues

“…The new edition is assigned as a required textbook, and publishers stem the tide of used book sales. Conversely, there may be a need to update the text regularly in fastchanging discipline such as law (Bodie, 2007;Harley, Lawrence, Krzys Acord, & Dixson, 2009). …”

“…Conversely, the textbook might not include certain information they feel is important for the students to learn, so they will supplement textbooks with other materials in order to "customize" the course (Baker, Thierstein, Fletcher, Kaur, & Emmons, 2009;Harley, Lawrence, Krzys Acord, & Dixson, 2009 (Laurence, 2002;Bodie, 2007;Coffin, 2012). They can add their own commentary and annotations and make them available to the students in the course, or to the public at large (Laurence, 2002).…”

“…They can add their own commentary and annotations and make them available to the students in the course, or to the public at large (Laurence, 2002). In short, they can have more control over course materials and adapt the readings to suit their teaching needs (Bodie, 2007).…”

“…The academics who write textbooks are employed at post-secondary institutions, and must balance this endeavour with teaching, supervision, research, grant applications, and committee responsibilities. Junior faculty who are working towards earning tenure credits are often advised by senior faculty to forego textbook authorship for "worthier" pursuits such as research, which are viewed more favourably by tenure committees (Bodie, 2007;Morris-Babb & Henderson, 2012). Textbooks require a large outlay of time and energy and are generally not considered novel contributions to the literature and thus do not "count" towards a faculty member's academic curriculum vitae (Bodie, 2007).…”

“…Junior faculty who are working towards earning tenure credits are often advised by senior faculty to forego textbook authorship for "worthier" pursuits such as research, which are viewed more favourably by tenure committees (Bodie, 2007;Morris-Babb & Henderson, 2012). Textbooks require a large outlay of time and energy and are generally not considered novel contributions to the literature and thus do not "count" towards a faculty member's academic curriculum vitae (Bodie, 2007). Peter Atkins, author of the influential textbook Physical Chemistry, said that "it is increasingly difficult for publishers to get people to write textbooks.…”