Stetson law school professor reinvents the law book as a website

Professor of Law Tim Kaye
Professor of Law Tim Kaye

Stetson University Professor of Law Tim Kaye has reinvented the law book in the form of an interactive website. This month, Kaye publicly launched his Law of Torts book on the Webby Books website that he designed to bridge the gap between traditional law books and modern legal research.

Kaye’s Webby Books is a responsive website where law students and professors may interact with law books published online. Dissatisfied with restrictions from publishers, Kaye created the Webby Books website to encourage class discussion directly within the text, as well as free online scholarly research.

“I want people to think that online books are more than just an electronic version of a hard copy text,” said Kaye.

Kaye’s Law of Torts on the Webby Books website features live forums for interactive class discussion, a method on each page for students to add notes and highlight text, hypotheticals and multiple choice quizzes for every book chapter, hyperlinks to Google Scholar and free legal research, a searchable glossary with pronunciation and definition of terms, and expandable diagrams.

Kaye developed the website over a two-year period, and used Webby Books to teach the Law of Torts to three of his classes. Kaye said that a colleague has also used the book to teach two of his classes.

“I initially had reservations about using an online textbook. I even printed out the first two chapters in an attempt to cling to what was comfortable,” said Stetson law student Hannah Ibañez. “However, after my first year of law school, it is my opinion that Dr. Kaye’s book is the best textbook I have used for any course in law school so far.”

“Hopefully, other professors will want to use this method,” Kaye said.

To view a demo on how Webby Books works, visit https://webby-books.com/news/demonstration-video/.

Law professors interested in learning more about using or publishing the Webby Books website should visit https://webby-books.com/faculty/. To try out the Webby Books method, professors may also sign up for a free three-month trial of the Law of Torts.

Visit Stetson University College of Law.