Fortnightly Review

The Fortnightly Review of IP & Media Law was a fortnightly online journal hosted by IPRIA and the CMCL at the University of Melbourne. The mission was to provide a forum for independent and critical and cross-disciplinary analysis of issues and ideas to do with IP & Media Law, drawing on the talents of an eclectic group of (mostly academic) writers from Australia and elsewhere.

The Fortnightly Review drew inspiration from the original Fortnightly Review, founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope and others with the mission of providing an open forum for the discussion of issues and ideas – its eclectic range of writers including some of the most distinguished public intellectuals of the day. Early issues of the (original) Fortnightly included essays by Walter Bagehot on 'The English Constitution', Anthony Trollope's first chapters from The Belton Estate, and George Eliot writing on 'The Influence of Rationalism'. Similarly, in later issues its writers covered topics of literature, science, politics and law, offering a variety of insights and viewpoints without any sense of narrow professional specialism. The Fortnightly Review set out to recreate a sense of open-minded exchange between lawyers and non-lawyers in the fields of IP & Media Law where the law's effect on commercial and social practices is profound and ingrained.

It's been an exciting experiment in collaborative publishing over the past two years, based on the model of one of those popular nineteenth century journals and magazines that were edited and written by a range of authors and served as conduits for public information and debate. But, for all the enthusiasm of those participating in the Fortnightly Review, we've reached the limit of the partly-amateur motivated to a large extent by affection for the task at hand. So we say goodbye, with thanks to our authors and readers, to IPRIA and the CMCL for partly sponsoring our publication, and to an Australian Research Council funded project on amateur media which sparked our interest in popular journals and magazines.

View Fortnightly Review

From the editors:

  • Vicki Huang
  • Andrew Kenyon
  • Megan Richardson
  • Jake Goldenfein

Melbourne, December 2011