Editorial: Academic Blogging, a New Year and New Team Members

We are a month into 2021, a year that to many of us may seem to be a continuation of 2020 in terms of the impact of COVID-19 on our lives. Here at the Blog, we have continued to monitor the effects of the pandemic on constitutional developments across the globe. For those scholars and students of constitutional law devoted to the search for truth in their work, this experience has been confronting. Anne Orford suggested recently that the governance and regulatory response to this global crisis is a ‘dress rehearsal for the climate change crisis.’ The way constitutionalists around the world are responding and adapting to the pandemic will affect the future of global constitutionalism and the way in which we will respond to the crises of the future.   

Due to the pandemic, in 2020 we all spent more time in the virtual world. While this shift in behaviour has been problematic in terms of human wellbeing, it also meant a dramatic increase in visibility for online content. At the IACL Blog we took advantage of this opportunity to innovate, by introducing V-Conversations and Vlogs. We noticed a significant increase in interest among scholars in publishing and engaging with each other on our platform. In the absence of in person conferences and workshops, online platforms such as the IACL Blog took on renewed purpose.  

In this context, it is useful to revisit the academic value of blogging. In a previous editorial, we took note of the increase in reference to academic blogs in constitutional debates and even litigation. Today we would like to highlight a range of purposes that academic blogs serve. For example, academic blogs allow scholars to develop and float their ideas and work in progress. Some do this individually while others do it collectively. The advantages of developing an emerging idea collectively are beautifully illustrated through the Constitutional Landmark Judgements symposia convened by our guest editor Eleonora Bottini. This method allows for the development of constitutional theory ground-up on a virtual platform. Another purpose of a blog post is that it can be used to promote published work and to generate further debate and discussion around new thinking. Finally, academic blogging is a means for critiquing constitutional developments as they happen, and offer insights to a global readership.  

If academic blogs do serve these numerous purposes, what scholarly standards should we adhere to in our publication process? At the IACL Blog we review and copyedit posts. We require that posts be short, be written in an accessible style and be relevant to a global audience. In comparison to traditional methods of academic publication, blog posts are published within a short time-period, allowing for ideas to be disseminated rapidly. The promotion of academic blogs through social media amplifies this impact and allows authors to reach a wider audience. Moreover, newer formats such as video blogs offer creative alternatives to the written format.  

Taking note of this increased significance of academic blogging in a rapidly changing world, we at the IACL Blog look forward to continuing to serve you. In this regard, we are delighted to announce that we have expanded our team. We welcome on board as Assistant Editors Mariana Velasco-Rivera, Berihun Adugna Gebeye, Phoebe Galbally, Elisabeth Perham, Joshua Snukal, and Ayesha Wijayalath, while Imogen Timms will act as Communications Assistant. Berihun will also spearhead a special project that we will launch in the next few months, in anticipation of the World Congress of the IACL in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2022.  

Other exciting initiatives are also in preparation, and we expect to share them with you soon. In the meantime, we wish you a healthy and productive year ahead, and look forward to our engagements with you! 

Dinesha SAMARARATNE and Erika ARBAN

Co-Editors

Suggested Citation: Dinesha Samararatne and Erika Arban, ‘Editorial: February 2021’ IACL-AIDC Blog (4 February 2021)