Here are two of the silliest rules and practices of law review editing:
1. Parentheticals
One of the most obnoxious rules is the requirement that nearly all cites need to have a parenthetical containting descriptive text. For example, suppose you write in the text:
The Supreme Court has held that a public official must prove actual malice to prevail in a libel suit. [Footnote 1]
Commenters tell me that the above sentence won’t need a parenthetical. Here’s another try:
The Supreme Court has made it significantly more difficult for public officials to prevail in libel suits. [Footnote 1]
Footnote 1: See New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 281-83 (1964).
But that’s not good enough. Often editors want a parenthetical. But what needs further explanation? Notwithstanding the fact that it is completely useless and unhelpful, a parenthetical will be added:
Footnote 1: See New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 281-83 (1964) (holding that actual malice is required for public officials in libel cases).
I’ve often received my articles back from law review editors with hundreds of parentheticals added to cites in the footnotes — and these parentheticals just repeat what was said in the text or add extraneous and irrelevant information.
2. Footnotes for Every Proposition
Another irksome practice is when law review editors want footnotes for nearly every proposition in the article. For example:
The earth revolves around the sun.
A footnote must be added:
The earth revolves around the sun. [Footnote 1]
Footnote 1. See Nicolaus Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543)
I’ve had scores of needless footnotes added to my articles and countless times where editors requested I footnote things that cannot be footnoted, such as my own normative assertions. Another great one is when I say something like: “There are no cases involving [a particular issue].” Sometimes I’ve had editors ask me to supply a footnote. What do I cite to for the absence of something?
A related problem is that sometimes editors want to footnote every sentence that can be footnoted. I’ve had many instances where editors wanted to add footnotes after every sentence describing the facts of an opinion. What help are all these footnotes? The facts of an opinion usually take up the first two pages or so. If a reader can’t find the facts of an opinion, then I’m not sure that the reader will understand much of anything in my article.
Another related silly rule is to have a dual case cite in the same sentence. So if you write:
In New York Times v. Sullivan, [Footnote 1] the Supreme Court held that public officials must prove actual malice in libel cases. [Footnote 2]
Footnote 1. 376 U.S. 254 (1964)
Footnote 2: Id. at 281-83.
Why are two footnotes necessary for this sentence? They could readily be consolidated into one footnote.
In re Danny's second point, I once had a law review editor tell me I needed to find a footnote to support a sentence that began "In my opinion, ...." No lie.