Looking for Laughs in All the Law Places

Published in

walawlibrary

3 min readMar 14, 2024

A graphic shows three large three dimensional red capital letters from a slightly sideways perspective. The letters are L-O-L.

Legal research can be a real slog. But have you ever noticed that titles to law review articles are oftentimes actually entertaining or even really funny? Here at the library we run into these little gems all the time. We thought we would share with you some of these punny ones we’ve collected:

∙ Drew A. Driesen, Vanity Lawfare: Vanity License Plates and the First Amendment, 106 Iowa L. Rev. 363 (2020)

∙ Shivani Patel, The IP of IPAs: A Look into Trademark Infringement in the Craft Beer Industry, 26 J. Intell. Prop. L. 249 (2019)

∙ Terence J. Lau & William A. Wines, Take Two Tablets and Do Not Call for Judicial Review until Our Heads Clear: The Supreme Court Prepares to Demolish the Wall of Separation between Church and State, 43 Val. U. L. Rev. 595 (2009)

A photo shows a closeup of a piece of paper with text on it. The picture is blurry at top, clear below that, and then blurry again until it fades into whiteness at the bottom. The tip of a red pen is shown making corrections to the text. Over the photo is a quote in black text that reads, “The past, present and future walked into a bar. It was tense. It still is. And it will be tomorrow.” The citation for the quote is at bottom in black text. It reads, “Or. St. B. Bull., Feb./Mar. 2019, at 13.”

∙ Matthew Parry & Melinda A. Parry, Theirs Not to Reason Why, Theirs But to Make Law Review or Die: A Critique of the Law Review System and Annotated Bibliography, 23 Legal Reference Services Q. 29 (2004)

∙ Kathryn Starshak, It’s the End of the World as Musicians Know It, or Is It — Artists Battle the Record Industry and Congress to Restore Their Termination Rights in Sound Recordings, 51 DePaul L. Rev. 71 (2001)

∙ Michael Stokes Paulsen, Captain James T. Kirk and the Enterprise of Constitutional Interpretation: Some Modest Proposals from the Twenty-Third Century, 59 Alb. L. Rev. 671 (1996)

∙ J. M. Balkin & Sanford Levinson, How to Win Cites and Influence People, 71 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 843 (1996)

∙ Michael Stokes Paulsen, A RFRA Runs through It: Religious Freedom and the U.S. Code, 56 Mont. L. Rev. 249 (1995)

∙ Jeanne L. Schroeder, Chix Nix Bundle-O-Stix: A Feminist Critique of the Disaggregation of Property, 93 Mich. L. Rev. 239 (1995)

∙ Paul L. Caron, Tax Myopia, or Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Tax Lawyers, 13 Va. Tax Rev. 517 (1994)

A photo shows a woman at right with a pained look on her face. She holds her hand up to her forehead and she looks up slightly with her eyes. The background is faded, but there appear to be shelves with books in the background. Over the photo is a quote in black text that reads, “Puns are for children, not groan readers.” At bottom is the citation for the quote in black text that reads, “N.Y. St. B.A. J., Mar./Apr. 2003, at 64.”

∙ Patrick T. Murphy, Section 27A of the SEA: An Unplugged Lampf Sheds No Constitutional Light, 78 Minn. L. Rev. 197 (1993)

∙ Designer Genes that Don’t Fit: A Tort Regime for Commercial Releases of Genetic Engineering Products, 100 Harv. L. Rev. 1086 (1987)

∙ Michael D. Green, From Here to Attorney’s Fees: Certainty Efficiency and Fairness in the Journey to the Appellate Courts, 69 Cornell L. Rev. 207 (1983–84)

∙ Richard S. Markovits, Duncan’s Do Nots: Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Determination of Legal Entitlements, 36 Stan. L. Rev. 1169 (1984) (WB)

Looking for Laughs in All the Law Places

Written by Reference Staff