PEER REVIEW in academic legal publishing serves to:

Question

Accepted Answer

A.

1. PEER REVIEW is the EVALUATION of academic work by INDEPENDENT EXPERTS in the field, before publication.
2. FUNCTIONS:
3. (i) ENSURE QUALITY — originality, methodology, accuracy, clarity;
4. (ii) IDENTIFY ERRORS or weak arguments;
5. (iii) GATEKEEP scholarly standards;
6. (iv) PROVIDE FEEDBACK for improvement.
7. VARIANTS:
8. (i) DOUBLE-BLIND — reviewers don't know authors; authors don't know reviewers (most rigorous; reduces bias);
9. (ii) SINGLE-BLIND — reviewers know author identity but author doesn't know reviewers (US convention often);
10. (iii) OPEN — both identities known (emerging practice);
11. (iv) STUDENT-EDITED journals — student editors in many US law journals.
12. CRITICISMS: slow process, reviewer biases, publication of marginal work, reproducibility crisis.
13. INDIAN law journals increasingly adopt peer review (NLSIR, NUJSLR, JCLE); SCC Online Notes, Indian Law Review, JILI are peer-reviewed.
14. Hence option B is correct.
_Source: Legal Research Methodology + Jurisprudence — Academic peer review_